03 June 2012

Vessel scrapping levels set to double:

Scrapping levels set to be higher than recent years, but 1.4 million TEUs worth of new vessels will be delivered

More than 200,000 TEUs worth of shipping capacity is to be disposed of in 2012. The number of ships scrapped so far this year already significantly outnumbers the overall quantity scrapped in 2011.

The rate of vessels going offline is set to only increase, due to the lower earning potential and lower efficiency of older vessels. Also, the average age of disposed container ships has now dropped from the 28 years it was in the past decade to 26 years.

However, the global shipping capacity will be bolstered by a staggering 1.4 million TEUs worth of new vessel deliveries during 2012, container market analyst Alphaliner said. So far this year, 621,000 TEUs worth of new ships have already been introduced.

The speed with which old vessels are being dropped means that the scrapping rate for 2012 is now one of the highest rates of demolition ever, second only to the rate in 2009 where 379,000 TEUs worth of vessels were demolished. Since January this year, 69 ships totalling 124,000 TEUs have been scrapped, compared to just 85,000 TEUs in all of 2011.

Source: The Port Technology. 24 May 2012

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