Scrapping of containerships has dwindled in 2015 despite the overcapacity blighting most deep-sea trades. And while maritime analyst Drewry expects scrapping to pick up a bit next year, it is not the answer to the industry’s overcapacity problem, unless owners take the brave move to get rid of younger and bigger ships
The latest Drewry Container Insight report pointed out that the number of containerships that were scrapped by the half-way stage of 2015 had decreased dramatically, with only 47 vessels demolished, compared to 107 at the same stage in 2014.
“The scrapping slowdown has seen a paltry 87 500 TEUs removed from the world’s cellular fleet, which is fast approaching the 20-million-TEU mark with the rapid influx of big new ships,” said Drewry.
Owners of older ships have preferred this year to extend the life cycle of their assets rather than consign them to the scrap heap because demolition prices are less attractive than they were and because there has been some renewed demand for panamax ships as a consequence of a spurt of new regional services in the early months of the year, particularly in Asia, and to cover the US West Coast port strikes.
According to Drewry, the lack of scrapping activity could be viewed as a missed opportunity to redress the supply and demand imbalance, but in reality scrapping does not do anything to minimise overcapacity in the high-volume trades that have the biggest say on the leading carriers’ profitability.
