Underemployed ships become warehouses for empty boxes

Nearly all the boxes aboard one of the world’s largest containerships were reportedly empty and bound for Asia from Morocco, Exim News Service informed.
"Most will wait far longer than they would have two years ago before returning full to Europe," said a report.

Shippers wanting to send goods from Asia to Europe have sometimes offered a zero freight rate, providing they cover fuel and terminal handling charges, the report explained.
The combination of excess capacity and falling demand has caused the rates that many transport operators can charge to slump, by as much as 90 per cent in some cases.
Shipping lines have been using their growing numbers of idle ships just to store empties, says another report. Now, even the underemployed vessels are doing so.

Surplus containerships have deckloads of empty boxes, figuring that it is cheaper to pay the handling charges once empties are loaded aboard ships than to pay daily per-TEU storage fees at global container yards.

More than 400,000 containers sit empty and idle at Shenzhen’s Yantian terminal, and in Hong Kong officials are looking to park hundreds of thousands more.
"You will find similar situations in Shanghai, other Chinese ports, Hong Kong and many ports around the world," a top official of the Hong Kong Shippers' Council said.
"You have idle containerships full of empty containers, sitting in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and many other ports around the world. When cargo is not moving, there is no demand for containers."

Exporters are now expressing concern that shipping lines will no longer be able to transport their goods.

Carriers are also claiming that current freight rates are not sustainable for them to stay in business. "I think they’re definitely not sustainable. The rates we’re currently seeing are frightening," observed the head of a global ocean transport company.
 

(Source: Port News)