20 Aug 13 - 10:42
BIMCO report shows fairly good demand in intra-Asian trades
BIMCO report for Container Shpping shows several container lines keep on posting poor financial results as the world of container shipping is so much more than the main trade lanes. Demand is still fairly good in the intra-Asian trades despite the lower growth level of Chinese exports and a recent beggar-thy-neighbour currency policy in Japan.
On the trans-Pacific trades, volumes grew at slightly more than 2% in both directions for the first five months of 2013, according to CTS. Also, the volume growth on the backhaul leg from Europe to Asia was in positive waters. Altering a sour start to the year, the trade has now delivered a cumulative growth rate of 2.7% for the first four months. That leaves the blame on the Asia-Europe front haul leg, which delivered a three-year low level of hauled containers for the first four months of 2013, down 1% on 2012.
Reversing the trend of several months with a falling level of idled containerships, mid-July numbers from Alphaliner now indicate that 187 units for 448,000 TEU is currently idle. This represents 2.7% of the total fleet. The dip in June was a 20-months low for the idle fleet. It remains sub-5,000 TEU, tonnage which primarily is held idle.
The growth in the containership segments remains positively impacted by a healthy level of demolition to counterbalance the inflow of newbuild tonnage. During the past two months, the fleet has grown by just 5 ships. Year-to-date the fleet has increased by 3.8%, as 134 new ships have been launched while 115 ships have left the fleet for good.
As the crisis bites into the economic value of the assets, the containerships that are being sold for recycling tend to grow bigger in size. Back in 2011, the average size of 59 ships being demolished stood at 1,308 TEU; in 2012 the average size grew to 1,865 for the 179 ships bound to be broken up. 2013 continues down that road, with year-to-date demolition of 41 post-3,000 TEU ships mostly built in the early 1990’es and 115 ships in total at an average size of 2,243 TEU. The first post-5,000 TEU vessel on record was built in 1995. Only time will tell if that is to be “next in line”, and go down in history as the largest container vessel demolished at some point.
All in all, the global shipyard orderbook still shrinks, standing now at 90 million CGT, down 13% on same time last year. The containership orderbook is only down by 8% and has been flat, with some upticks in recent four months. This may be an indication of the bottom being reached in terms of sheer size of the containership orderbook, an indication supported by recent ordering spree.
Global deliveries are down significantly too, as deliveries in the first five months of 2013 were 23% smaller than the period last year.
In the meantime, new orders for containerships are surfacing constantly – with a substantial part coming from tonnage providers placing orders in the post-8,000 TEU size segments. As per orderbook information on 26 July 2013, containerships with a combined capacity of 917,263 TEU have been contracted in 2013 – but new rumours and press releases keep coming in to build on top of that. 85% of the 2013-orders have been for post-8,000 TEU sized tonnage.
For more information, read the BIMCO report Container Shipping - Little progress in demand and record-sized ships
