The world’s container shipping lines have
been scrapping and laying-up increasing numbers of vessels to contain a freight
rate slide as the trade enters its traditional peak season.
Weak peak season demand is forcing carriers
to curtail capacity, especially on the transpacific trade, according to data
from Alphaliner published this morning.
It shows total slot capacity between Asia and
North America was 1.6% less this month than in July 2015.
Most of that capacity was withdrawn by the O3
partners, which cancelled one Asia-US west coast and one Asia-US east coast
service – an 18.8% capacity reduction.
In contrast the Maersk-MSC 2M partnership has
seen capacity increase 7.1% year-on-year – although there was a 1% decrease
between June and July.
The CKYHE Alliance, which has the largest
transpacific offering at 150,230 teu a week, grew capacity month-on-month
between June and July this year by 1.5%, and year-on-year by 3.8%. The second
largest offering, the G6 with 133,610 teu a week, saw capacity diminish 3.3%
month-on-month and 2.3% year-on-year.
Whether these cuts are significant enough to
stabilise freight rates remains open to question – an analysis of scrapping
levels by Drewry Maritime Research this week suggests operators will need to do
a lot more if they are to bring supply back in line with demand.
Drewry data shows that as much as 450,000 teu
of capacity could be scrapped in 2016, making it a record year for ship
breakers. Last year less than half that amount was scrapped.
According to the analyst, some 14 ex-panamax
vessels were sent to scrapping facilities in the first quarter this year alone,
as that particular asset class is facing increasing redundancy due to the
opening of the Panama Canal expansion.
“More panamax vessels will surely head for
the scrapyards of South Asia, as their owners or charterers replace them by
newer and more efficient 8,000 teu-plus ships,” it said.
Much of the activity has been at the behest
of non-operating vessel owners left with few options after charter hires rates
went into meltdown.
“The choice is between chartering out ships
at historically low (and loss-making) levels, paying for idling costs until a
hoped-for shipping market recovery happens, or scrapping the vessels,” said
Drewry. “More will decide that scrapping is the least bad of the three
options.”
However, Drewry also warned that as 450,000
teu represented just 2% of global ship capacity, the effect on freight rates
was likely to be limited, especially as some 4.5m teu capacity was added to the
global fleet between 2010 and 2015.
“Although necessary, ship demolitions will
not be enough to bring the container sector back into balance unless owners
also refrain from ordering many new vessels.”
Source: the load star. 20 July 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment