Ocean cargo/global logistics: More vessels being sent to the scrapyard

According to maritime analysts, the number of container vessels sold for demolition so far this year has reached record highs.

Industry reseachers at Paris-based Alphaliner, announced that the number of scrapped vessels has exceeded 275,000 twenty-equivalent units (TEU), with increasing numbers of larger ships among them.

A total of 148 ships have been scrapped this year, of which 85 were controlled by carriers while 63 were disposed by NVOs (Non-Vessel Operators). Carriers have led the move to scrap elderly tonnage, including a few ships larger than 4,000 TEU, making them the largest cellular ships ever demolished.

MSC has been the most active carrier in the scrap market, with 20 owned ships sold this year for demolition (including one non-cellular ship), to which can be added 12 ships which were under MSC charter just before joining the scrapyards. The second most active seller was MOL with 12 owned ships scrapped. Another 9 ships were sold by U.S. interests which had leased them to Maersk Line.

These moves comes as the idle fleet continued to climb, reaching 10.4 percent of the fleet this week, or 1.34 million TEU, according to data compiled by Alphaliner.

While these figures seem to suggest that shippers may not have the capacity when the economy recovers, not everyone in this industry shares that concern.

“The full containership segment has one of the youngest fleets in the maritime industry and has grown rapidly in terms of carrying capacity, over the past 14 years,” noted Eduardo E. Lugo, the international commerce specialist for the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).

“Only a limited number of carriers have cancelled their new orders and shipyards will keep delivering the vessels in the order books. In the next couple of years, we will see a large number of containerships being scrapped, but the oversupply problem will continue,” he said.

In an interview with LM, Lugo said that  in the future, the supply and demand balance won’t hurt beneficiary cargo owners when the economy recovers.

“However, it will take some time for the consumer confidence index to recover and some additional time to reach the level of container trade registered two years ago,” he said (source: www.logisticsmgmt.com).