GLOBAL deliveries of new
containerships have surpassed one million TEU since the beginning of 2011 with
154 vessels delivered and 280,000 TEU more to come by the end of the year, says
Alphaliner.
""Non-deliveries"
due to cancellations, deferrals and slippage have fallen to 8.5 per cent, only
twice their long-term historical levels, as the bulk of the delivery deferrals
was negotiated in 2009 and 2010," the Paris-based maritime consultancy
said in its weekly newspaper.
"2009 and 2010 were
exceptional years as the financial crisis led owners and carriers to defer the
deliveries of a significant part of the order book, as well as to cancel part
of their orders. Such crisis-driven initiatives were not to be repeated in
2011. Cancellations have actually been marginal this year with no impact on
deliveries scheduled for 2011," said the report.
Scrapping and conversions of
older box ships since January 2011 have reached 65,000 TEU, with a further
15,000 TEU expected to leave the cellular fleet during the last three months of
this year. As a result, the annual net growth rate of the containership fleet
in 2011 is expected to reach 8.4 per cent, it said.
So far this year, 37 ships
of more than 10,000 TEU have been delivered, accounting for 47 per cent of the
total capacity delivered, and all of these vessels have joined the Asia-Europe
trades, with this route absorbing 64 per cent of this year's new capacity at
640,000 TEU, including smaller ships of 6,500 to 10,000 TEU.
The Asia-Europe trade lane
now offers a total capacity of 236,000 TEU, or year-to-date growth of seven per
cent. Larger ships have pushed out smaller ones, aggregating 400,000 TEU, a
situation that is combined with depressed freight rates.
It noted that the Latin
America trades have absorbed 169,000 TEU, or 17 per cent, of the vessel
capacity delivered this year. Altogether, the trade has absorbed 250,000 TEU of
additional capacity this year, including both new ships and vessels cascaded
from other trades, mainly from the Asia-Europe and transpacific routes.
The Middle East trade has
absorbed 50,000 TEU while intra-Asia routes account for 29,000 TEU.
Deliveries are expected to
hit 1.4 million TEU and 1.8 million TEU, respectively, in 2012 and 2013, most
capacity coming from ships larger than 7,500 TEU, the report said.
Source : HKSG.