Substantial demolition of panamax containerships
30 June 2016Demolition of containerships almost tripled in the first 5 months of the year 2016 in comparison to the same period of last year.
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Demolition of containerships almost tripled in the first 5 months of the year 2016 in comparison to the same period of last year.
Overall, container volumes being moved around the world have grown by an average GDP-to-trade multiplier of just 1.1 since 2010 and we expect this to continue in coming years. With IMF expecting GDP growth of 3.4% in 2016, this translates into container demand of 3.5-4%.
The demand for container shipping is stalling at the moment. Indicators for growth in the first months of 2016 point to limited overall demand and huge variations from trade to trade.
2015 was a busy year for container traffic on the eastern coast of the US. 7.9 million TEU of loaded containers entered the US East Coast in 2015, a 12.6% increase - compared to 7 million in 2014.
On a global scale, containerised export data from CTS, shows that activity improved in May following a weak start to 2013. Since then, the pace has picked up, and November and December saw 5-7% growth rates from same months of last year.
During the past eighteen months, a couple of trends seem clear in the freight market for container shipping. Primarily, the demand for imported containerised goods in Europe and US is going up, reflecting the clearly improved economic development. Secondly, the vessels become larger and larger as the quest to lower unit costs is high on the agenda everywhere. Thirdly, the major freight rate volatility is mostly on European-bound containers.
BIMCO’s Chief Shipping Analyst, Peter Sand, will be speaking and providing the audience with unique insights on the container market at the European Shipping Seminar on 27 November 2019 in Athens, Greece.
European containerised imports look likely to be stuck with demand growth of no more than 2% for years to come. That means the long-hauls into northern and southern Europe, where Ultra Large Containerships are perfectly suited to reap the benefits of economies of scale, will suffer unless cascading is accelerated.
As weak demand growth is forecasted for the coming quarters, the container shipping industry is set to return to negative margins.
Container imports on both the US East Coast (USEC) and West Coast (USWC) had a strong year in 2018, growing 3.7% and 8% respectively in the first 11 months of the year compared to the same period in 2017.