Container Capacity to Expand Next Year

Next year will see 1.55MTEU added to the global containership fleet, an expansion of 9.5% and increasing available capacity to 16.8MTEU, according to Braemar Seascope.

The ship broker says that statistics point to a 2012 increase exceeding the record 1.52MTEU achieved in 2007. This is largely due to considerable fleet growth in the 10 000TE-plus bracket, which is expected to reach 70% year-on-year for 2011 and a further 57% in 2012.

Of the 230 ships due for delivery next year, 59 have a nominal container capacity of 10 000TEU or more, adding an additional 0.8MTEU to this segment.

Braemar says, bearing in mind that the vast majority of ultra-large containerships are currently deployed on Asia – Europe services, next year’s delivery influx would be sufficient tonnage to create another five loops deploying ten x 13 000 TEU vessels.

However, for vessels up to and including 5100TEU capacity, it is a very different story: the lower level of investment in newbuilding projects is apparent as growth is expected to reach only 2.9% this year before hitting 3.0% in 2012.

Since January 2010, owners have ordered 1.7MTEU capacity of boxships with a capacity of 5100TEU or more compared with 0.4MTEU of smaller ships.

Containerships of 10 000 TEU or more comprise 49% of the global orderbook by capacity whereas containerships up to 5100TEU represent only 20% of the global orderbook, states Braemar in its recent market report.

Despite record crude oil liftings from the Middle East and anticipated demand growth of around 2%for 2011, the market for tanker shows a persistent oversupply of VLCC tonnage, according to Braemar analysis.

However, the 47 VLCC deliveries scheduled for the first half of 2011 did not all enter the market on time.

In both Q1 and Q2 this year, over 20 VLCC deliveries were inked in at the rate of more than one every week. In the event, Braemar recorded fewer than 20 VLCC deliveries in both quarters of 2011 to date: 19 in Q1 and 15 in Q2.

On 1st July, the VLCC fleet was 559 ships including 22 non-double hull units, with 150 ships on order. In deadweight capacity, the VLCC fleet has grown by 5.6% this year, from 160.9Mdwt on 1st January 2011 to 169.9M dwt on 1st July.

According to Braemar, it seems likely that further slippage from delivery schedules will happen in the coming quarters.

(imarest)