Boxship Lay-Ups Level Off

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

31 Mar 2009

The number of laid-up container ships stabilized over the past fortnight, breaking five months of steep increases, as ocean carriers re-activate idle vessels with the onset of the spring cargo season. As of March 30, 485 ships of 1.42 million TEUs capacity were idled, accounting for 11.3 percent of the global fleet, according to AXS-Alphaliner, a Paris-based consultant.
This compares with 484 vessels of 1.41 million TEUs two weeks ago when the lay-up rate showed the first signs of decelerating after surging from just 70 ships of 150,000 TEUs in late October when Alphaliner began tracking lay-ups.
Between 25 and 30 idled ships of over 4,000 TEUs likely will be re-activated in April after several carriers upgrade services in response to increased cargo flows after the post-Lunar New Year lull in Asia.
The CKYH alliance and CSAV Norasia are revamping their Asia-Europe services involving the return of several larger ships into the active fleet, Alphaliner reports.
The Grand Alliance-Zim partnership and the CKYH Alliance also are re-introducing two U.S. East Coast services that were suspended towards the end of 2008.
"However it is till too early to signal a reverse in the trend of increased containership idling as cargo volumes have not returned in any significant numbers," Alphaliner noted.
"Some smaller ships that are currently active will also [be] pushed into the unemployed ranks as the larger ships are introduced."
"Cargo volumes need to return strongly in the next three quarters if the current idle fleet is to be absorbed," according to Alphaliner. This is unlikely with the World Trade Organization forecasting global trade will contract by nine percent this year.
The world fleet also is growing, with shipyards delivering 79 new ships with a total capacity of 297,000 TEUs since January.
While more containerships are being sold for scrap compared with previous years, only 37 vessels of 65,000 TEUs have been broken up in the first three months of 2009.
As a result, the capacity of the fleet year-to date has grown by a net 1.9 percent, according to Alphaliner.

Source: Journal of Commerce