On the box ships' renaissance
The shipyards are busy again. According to Clarksons, the order book for container ships is also on the rise. Since 2010, when 30% of the global order book were container vessels, their share of the operating fleet worldwide saw a constant downward trend to the low of 8.8% in Q3/2020, which represents the lowest figure in 20 years.
Now, container units stand for 17.6% of the newbuild fleet in terms of capacity in mid-May. All in all, only the LNG tanker sector has a higher proportion with a share of 23%.
Taking into account the pending further orders from main carriers such as Cosco, Hapag-Lloyd and HMM, it is very likely that the container vessels’ share will soon exceed 20%.
In addition, according to the delivery schedules for the new container ships, many of these newbuilds will enter operation in 2023. At this point, it will become the year with the highest rate of deliveries in terms of teu in the almost 70-year history of containerisation. (cd)