More and larger ships are being sent to ship breakers

More and bigger vessels head for scrap yards as idle global tonnage grows to record highs of 1.34 million TEU, or 10.4 per cent of the world's cellular capacity, according to data compiled by Alphaliner.

The Paris-based consultancy that tracks tonnage removed from service reports that bigger ships in the 4,000-TEU class are going to scrap yards as larger units are removed from trade.

There are idle 538 ships, including 183 totalling 733,000 TEU, controlled by carriers and 355 ships, or 608,000 TEU, run by charterers, or other non-operating owners.
So far this year, the containership capacity sold for scrap has exceeded 275,000 TEU. More and larger ships are being sent to ship breakers, said Alphaliner, bringing the number of ships scrapped this year to 148, of which 85 were controlled by carriers, and 63 by non-operating owners such as charterers.

Geneva's MSC leads in scrapping with 20 of its ships going to the breakers this year not including 12 ships which were under MSC charter just before going for scrap. Second, is Japan's MOL with 12 breaker-bound ships. "MSC's aggressive scrapping campaign has led to a zero idle fleet for the carrier, and MOL's idle fleet has also shrunken significantly from 17 per cent in May to eight per cent today," said Alphaliner.

Scrapped are the MOL Ingenuity (4,180 TEU, built 1992), the MOL Thames (3,733 TEU, built 1990), MOL Miracle and MOL Columbus (each 2,852 TEU, built 1991).

While possessing the most idle capacity - that's 96,000 TEU or 21 per cent of its fleet - China Shipping Container Line (CSCL) is not committed to scrapping ships, said Alphaliner. Most of its older vessels are under 1,200 TEU and the laid up fleet is made up of 14 newer ships of 5,700 TEU and four ships of between 4,000-4,250 TEU.

At 41 per cent of its fleet, Malaysia's MISC has the highest proportion of idle ships, totalling a capacity of 41,400 TEU. It has four ships between 6,000-8,000 TEU laid up while it was reported to be seeking to charter fresh tonnage in the 4,000 TEU class which it will likely deploy on the Mideast routes, said Alphaliner.

Source: www.schednet.com