2021 is a peculiar year for container shipping

This year is turning out to be a spectacular year in container shipping; freight rates are record high, more cargo than ever before is shipped on the transpacific trade lane specifically and globally in general, and the previous annual record on new orders for container ship capacity has just been breached – in less than eight months.

619 container ships are now on order for future delivery, 381 in 2021 alone, and never has 3.44m TEU being ordered in such a short time span. Still, it’s not a record for the total orderbook, as 6.8m TEU were on order by the end of July 2008, compared to 5.3m TEU today.

60 container ships with a cargo carrying capacity of 16,000 TEU each were ordered in February, March, April, and June by just five different owners. The one half of them was ordered by two Top-4 tonnage providers and one minor, and the other half by operating liner companies.

As owners see a somewhat different trade pattern developing in recent years and very much right now, due to the US-China trade war and the COVID-19 outbreak, the more ‘versatile’ 13,000-16,000 TEU have been preferred to the Ultra-Large Container Ships (ULCS).

Container shipping capacity of 1.5m TEU has been ordered so far in 2021, for delivery in each of the years 2023 and 2024. As the scheduled orderbook for 2024 today stands at 2.15m TEU, it’s worth noticing, that the record delivery year, date back to 2015, where 1.66m TEU entered active service on the global container lines’ networks.

Source: hellenshippingnews


Related News

2 Port Houston terminals remain closed due to hardware failure
2 Port Houston terminals remain closed due to hardware failure

Port Houston halted operations Tuesday at its two main public container terminals due to a major hardware failure, officials said.

Nhava Sheva Port builds integrated rail-side capacity for double-stacked box trains
Nhava Sheva Port builds integrated rail-side capacity for double-stacked box trains

Nhava Sheva Port (JNPT), India’s busiest public container gateway, has announced it is in a position to handle double-stacked container freight trains out of its new integrated rail yard for all terminals in the harbour.

Hapag-Lloyd’s departure shakes-up THE Alliance
Hapag-Lloyd’s departure shakes-up THE Alliance

Shipping pundits are expecting liner alliances to be redrawn, after Maersk Line and Hapag-Lloyd announced on 17 January that they will form Gemini Cooperation in February 2025.


main.add_cart_success