The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) has revealed that the capacity of the containership fleet has risen by 1.6 million TEU in the first half of 2024.
BIMCO noted that though no new benchmark has been established, rising demand for ships has led to poor ship recycling rates.
Strong cargo volume increase and ship rerouting at the Cape of Good Hope have resulted in the recycling of just 36 ships with a total capacity of 51,000 TEU.
Niels Rasmussen, Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO, said: “Despite the record, shipowners continue to put orders for new ships. Year to far, 63 ships with a total capacity of 0.4 million TEU have been ordered, and the order book-to-fleet ratio remains strong at 19 per cent.”
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BIMCO revealed that the order book contains orders for delivery in 2028, with an average of 1.5 million TEU slated for delivery each year between 2025 and 2027.
The aggregate capacity of 12,000 – 17,000 TEU ships has increased the quickest. This category is presently the largest within the container fleet, accounting for 22 per cent.
The segment’s capacity increased by 25 per cent year-on-year (YoY), accounting for over half of the entire fleet’s increase.
In fact, the 12,000 -17,000 TEU sector of ships was the primary engine of growth in 2022 and 2023. Furthermore, the category will drive growth in the future years, accounting for more than half of the capacity on order.
Ships larger than 17,000 TEU dominated expansion from 2015 to 2021, however, they account for just 17 per cent of the total order book capacity.
Shipowners’ attention has switched away from bigger ships, which are operationally constrained to ports in Asia and Europe, and the 212 ships already in service cover the majority of these trade channels.
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Rasmussen added: “The container fleet’s capacity is expected to exceed 30 million TEU for the first time at the end of the 3rd quarter and hit 30.5 million by the end of 2024. By the end of 2027, the current order book will add another 4.3 million TEU.
“As cargo volume growth is unlikely to match this expansion, we expect ship recycling to increase and temper overall fleet growth. In addition, if ships can eventually return to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, demand for ships will fall.”
