Big Isnt Always Beautiful

摘要

Size really matters in the world of box ships. In the past 12 months the number of vessels in the global fleet has risen by 14% to 4,089 ships weighing a total of 118M gt. Andrnthis impressive trend is expected to continue to 2010 and beyond, with the sizes of these vessels continuing to grow. The container ship orderbook is currently showing 199 vessels of 11,000+teu, with 82% of these signed up in the last six months. Even bigger vessels are expected to join the world fleet. In July, STX Shipbuilding announced a design for a 22,000teu vessel and neighbouring builder Samsung Heavy Industries has similar designs in the offing.