Cash-strapped lines opt for container leasing

With a definite swing towards shipping lines leasing rather than owning their container f leets, container lessors in 2014 have now grabbed just over half the annual global market. With 18.2 million TEUs, they now own slightly more than 50% of all containers, according to data sourced from World CargoNews. And this is likely to grow to be a much bigger share, according to a shipping executive who talked to FTW. It’s plain logic, he added. “What we’re seeing is carriers selling assets to release capital and then leasing back.” He also noted that this was noticeable in any container park where you were increasingly seeing the names of leasing companies on the boxes stored there. And, although you don’t truly control a leased asset that belongs to another party, the exec didn’t see any danger in lessors owning almost all the containers in the global f leet. However, Glenn Delve, marketing director of MSC, told FTW that his line was very much an aficionado of container ownership. “We have contracts with container manufacturers for a regular supply of new boxes, and are building up our owned box f leet all the time,” he said. And MSC’s reasoning for this is simple. “Leasing costs you more in the long-term,” he said. But he did acknowledge that this wasn’t necessarily reasoning that suited all the lines. “The liner industry has been in a poor state since 2008,” Delve said. “So working on a sale and leaseback basis helps them put some black figures on their otherwise red-lettered books.” And he accepted that the lessors’ growing market share was likely to continue – at least for the time being. “As ships get larger, more and more containers are required. All these megaships coming on stream, for example, mean you have to keep up with all this extra volume. And many lines have to employ lessors to fill these gaps.” But Delve noted that there could possibly be a swing back. “As the global economy keeps growing, there is always the likelihood that some lines that have been leasing boxes may start to move back to having owned fleets,” he said. But with lessors enjoying an 8.33% market growth in 2014, while the carriers’ only grew by 3.42%, it definitely seems that the ball is currently in the leasing companies’ court. The largest lessor is, by a big margin, Textainer with its fleet exceeding three million TEUs. Triton comes second with 2.4m TEUs and TAL is third with 2.3m TEUs. However, at the beginning of this year, Cronos and SeaCo merged – and this formed a fleet of 2.2 million TEUs, which is not reflected in the 2014 figures. So the 2015 market stats may very well record a difference in the top three. The 2014 newcomer to the charts, Beacon, which controls 660 000 TEUs, just slipped in at the bottom of the Top 10. INSERT What we’re seeing is carriers selling assets to release capital and then leasing back.