The container shipping fleet is expected to break through the 20 million TEU barrier this year, prompted largely by the arrival of mega ships, according to the Baltic and International Maritime Council (Bimco).
While 2016 will see the lowest fleet growth rate on record at 3.4%, the milestone could be reached in June with an estimated net addition of 680,000 TEUs of capacity for the full year, said the council in a new report.
Over the last decade, the fleet size in TEU increased by 240% and reached 19.7 million TEUs at the end of 2015.
However, the growth has been unevenly, displaying a shift to larger ship sizes as carriers sough to cut unit costs by adopting the motto “bigger is better.”
The ultra large container ship (ULCS) segment especially contributed to the growth, starting at 0.5% in 2007 and currently accounting for 18% of the total fleet as measured by TEU capacities, Bimco said.
“The total container ship fleet in TEU increased annually from 2006 onwards by 9%, in contrast to the number of ships which actually increased by only 3.7% on an annual basis,” said chief shipping analyst Peter Sand.
“Despite the enormous growth of ULCS market share, the post-panamax fleet of 8,000 TEUs-12,000 TEUs in relation to the total share and TEU capacity, is still the preferred shipping class, accounting for around one-fourth of the container ship fleet.”
Bimco noted striking differences in the annual growth rate for the time frames 2006-2016 and 2011-2016. While the feeder class with less than 500 TEUs per ship decreased by an average 4% per annum in 2006-2016, the decline accelerated even further by an additional 1% in the last five years.
On the other hand, while ship segments from feedermax (500 TEUs-999 TEUs) to panamax (3,000+ TEUs) grew marginally between 2006 and 2016, annual cutbacks of 1% to 2% occurred from 2011 onward.
From 2006 to 2016, the post-panamax segment of 3,000 TEUs-7,999 TEUs and 8,000 TEUs-12,000 TEUs showed growth by 8% and 23% on average per annum, respectively.
The most outstanding growth, though, was in the ULCS sector of at least 12,000 TEUs, which expanded by 45% annually between 2011 and 2016, backing up the trend towards larger capacity container ships.
“The trend towards higher capacity container ships stands out during the 2006-2016 period and even accelerated in the last five years,” said Sand. “Therefore, the driver towards the 20 million TEU margin was ultra large container ships and post-panamax between 8,000 TEUs-12,000 TEUs.”
Photo: Hummelhummel
