[210918.EN.BIZ] Continuing Sino-American Trade War Risks Record Laid-up Idle Tonnage

MANY more containerships will be laid-up because of US president Donald Trump's threat to hike tariffs on Chinese goods, according to Alphaliner.

The London-based Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) warning that over a quarter of container trade on the transpacific could be at risk from the escalating US-China tit-for-tat trade war, reported London's Loadstar.

The latest data from Alphaliner, based on a survey on September 3, records 143 idled ships, for 408,283 TEU representing 1.8 per cent of the total global cellular fleet.

"Idled numbers are expected to rise in the coming weeks due to service cancellations for the winter slack season," said the Paris-based consultancy.

Alphaliner also noted that the service cuts announced so far were "significantly more severe" than those in 2017.

The 2M alliance partners, Maersk Line and MSC, are "temporarily suspending" their AE2/Swan Asia-North Europe loop, with the last sailing from China on September 22 . The 11 vessels deployed on the loop - eight by MSC and three by Maersk - have an average capacity of 19,250 TEU and will need to find alternative employment for the indefinite suspension.

Alphaliner suggests these megaships could be deployed on other Asia to Europe strings, replacing smaller tonnage, which will face a period of lay-up.

One Hamburg broker told The Loadstar this week he had fixed a 4,250-TEU ship for a six-month charter, with a six-month option, for just shy of US$14,000 a day.

"The market in the smaller sizes is strong," he said, "these hire rates are not much less than we can get for ships twice the size."

Source : HKSG.