Shipyards are set to deliver vessels with an aggregate capacity of 1.75 million TEUs next year, up from 1.47 million TEUs in 2014, the industry analyst said. That includes 21 ships of 18,000 to 20,000 TEUs set to be delivered in 2015, Alphaliner says.
Scrapping could slow to 350,000 TEUs from 393,000 TEUs capacity from 171 vessels broken up this year, which is significantly down on the record 190 ships of 442,000 TEUs that were sent to ship breakers’ yards in 2013.
Demolition of older vessels was forecast to hit 500,000 TEUs in 2014, but a slide in scrap prices from a high of $500 per light displacement ton to $450/ldt in the Indian subcontinent saw a slump in scrapping in the second half of the year to just 103,000 TEUs.
As a result of the lower-than-expected scrapping rate, the global container ship fleet is forecast to grow by 6.2 percent in 2014 compared with earlier projections of 5.5 percent.
The slump in scrapping was also partly due to a near record low level of idle vessels despite the fall in traffic in the slack winter season.
The jobless fleet has remained below 130 ships through the second half of 2014 compared with a peak of 245 vessels in February.
Of the 107 idle ships on Dec. 15, only 26 were without work for over six months, including 23, mostly controlled by financially troubled owners, that were unemployed for over a year.
