(The Loadstar) –
Laid-up containership capacity “remains at an alarmingly high level”, according
to the latest review by Alphaliner and, worryingly for shipowners, there are
still no signs of demand picking up.
In a survey taken
on 4 April, the consultant recorded 325 idle containerships at anchor –
equating to 1.48m teu and 7.4% of the global cellular fleet.
According to the
Alphaliner data, mothballed tonnage includes 54 vessels of 5,100-7,499 teu, and
55 of 7,500 teu and over, with their operators all desperately seeking
employment for them at almost any rate.
Alphaliner said it
had seen further “faltering demand” for charter tonnage in the past two weeks –
a time of year when demand is normally strong – “dashing hopes of seeing
overcapacity decrease in the foreseeable future”.
It is yet more
evidence of the market’s severe troubles, it added: “With simply too much
capacity afloat, and inadequate demand.”
It follows that it
is now an operators’ market, and any fixtures being made are on daily hire
rates that barely cover operating costs, with open-ended options and free
positioning included.
The nightmare is
worst for owners of panamax vessels of 4,000-5,000 teu and the over-panamax
sector of ships up to 7,500 teu in size, but Alphaliner repotrs that the only
fixture done in the 7,500-9,500 teu sector in the past fortnight was the
charter of the ER Vancouver to MSC for a 12-month period at an all-time low of
just $6,500 per day.
A similar sized
ship would have commanded four or five times that rate a year ago.
The rock-bottom
charter rates are expected to have a further impact on vessel value, eventually
obliging owners to take impairment losses and potentially breaching the loan-to-value
covenants of mortgages.
The reduced ship
values and dire prospects for the panamax sector – particularly once the
enlarged Panama Canal opens in June – are forcing owners to reconsider
scrapping as an option. The decision to send a ship to the breaker’s yard will
have been made somewhat easier for owners by a recent slight increase in scrap
prices to around $300 per LDT.
London-based
shipbroker Braemar ACM reports that 41 container vessels, totalling 143,000
teu, have been sold for demolition so far this year – compared with the 85
(187,500 teu) scrapped in the whole of 2015 – suggesting that 2016 could be a
record year for ship scrapping.
Meanwhile,
Alphaliner has noted a new record for the biggest containership ever sold for
demolition: claimed to be the 6,479 teu DS Kingdom, which, having been built in
2001 is also one of the youngest ships to have ended its final voyage on a
beach in the Indian sub-continent.
The Loadstar is
fast becoming known at the highest levels of logistics and supply chain
management as one of the best sources of influential analysis and commentary.
Source: gcaptain. 13
April 2016
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