ORDER RUSH COMES TO A HALT AS CARRIERS SEE SENSE IN SCRAPPING

摘要

A curious thing happened in January; no containerships of any size were ordered at any yard anywhere. After several years of relentlessly ramping up the size of vessels and the capacity of the world fleet, owners and operators appear to have taken the month off. With 5,151 vessels already in service, with a combined capacity of 19.5m teu, that does make sense. The woes of the container shipping sector are well known, with supply massively outstripping demand, forcing down rates to unsustainable levels. The hiatus in orders, however, has not prevented the fleet growing in the past month. Data from Lloyd's List Intelligence shows 10 vessels, comprising over 72,000 teu, joined the fleet in January.