Containership demolition has reached an all-time high and provides a positive surprise for the struggling container shipping industry, according to the Baltic and International Maritime Council (Bimco).
Bimco said that from January to October this year, 500,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) have so far been scrapped, or 4.2 times more TEUs than for the same months in 2015.
“The demolition activity in the last three months’ surprised Bimco positively and it exceeded our initial expectation based on the appalling 2015 demolition activity,” Bimco’s chief shipping analyst Peter Sand said. “The advance is a push in the right direction, as demolition activity is one of the essential measures needed to be taken to rebalance the container shipping industry.”
He added: “It is important that the demolition of excess capacity comes sooner rather than later, as there is still a huge delivery schedule hanging over the container shipping industry for the rest of this year and well into 2017-2018. However, the high demolition activity is currently softening the net supply growth rate of the container shipping capacity and will prevent a darker outlook for the years to come, if maintained.”
Bimco said that with the last three months accounting for more than 41% of the total demolition in 2016, the activity is picking up and is primarily generated by the Panamax container ships.
The demolition of Panamax containerships in TEU accounts for 47% of the total demolition in 2016, while TEUs scrapped from intermediate and feeder containerships account for 30% and 23%, respectively.
The demolition of intermediate container ships has had a great return from only being scrapped one month in 2015, said Bimco.
“The demolition of intermediate containership is a strong signal for the measures taken in the container shipping industry, as they generally are bigger and younger than the Panamax and feeder containerships,” the council said.
The high level of scrapping comes in the aftermath of Bimco reporting the lowest level of newbuilding contracts in 20 years. Container contracts, based on compensated gross tonnage, were down 84% for the first eight months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.
“The events in 2016 have shown that the tools to turn the container shipping industry around are being used and are working. The recommendations to consolidate fleets and demolish ships are being taken seriously within the industry,” Sand said.
Photo: Stéphane M Grueso
