Report confirms wisdom of big ship orders

DESPITE MUCH criticism, there is numerical justification for shipowners ordering more and even larger container ships, according to the Dutchbased shipping consultancy, Dynamar. This as lines move further and faster into very large container ships (VLCS) of over 7 500-teu capacity; and ultra large container ships (ULCS) larger than 10 000-teu. Dynamar’s figures show that, if all these container “superships” are actually built, there will be more than 170 container vessels averaging 12 500-teu around by 2012. But, said the report, “container liner operators have often been blamed rather than praised for their wisdom in ordering yet more and ever larger box ships”. However, it appears that, since the turn of the 21st century, joint carryings across the globe by the world’s 25 largest shipping companies have not only kept pace - but have increased even faster than the teu capacity of the ships they deploy. “By 7% to be precise,” according to Dynamar. All the big ships on order will be exclusively deployed by the Top 25 carriers, and an index – dubbed the “Cap/Car Ratio” – seems to prove them right in their “supership” ambitions. Since December 31, 1999 (with a base ratio of 100), the Top 25’s joint full container liftings have grown at an indexed value of 168, whereas their container carrying capacity reached 156 points at the end of 2006. This, Dynamar added, resulted in an indexed carryings/capacity growth ratio of 107 points, reaching a highpoint in 2004 at 111, and a low in 2002 of 105. In the same six-year period, their joint fleet capacity increased from 3.8-million TEUs to 8.8-m, and the average vessel size from 2 000 to 2 850 teus. And, although these figures are all derived from the Top 25 carriers, this is the vast majority of the word’s containerised seafreight market. NOTE: All the information in this article has been derived from the justpublished 7th edition of Dynamar’s annual report: “Top 25 (2007) Container Liner Operators – Trading Profiles”. Top 25 container liner operators (including their subsidiaries) account for: ● 80% of the global full container trade; ● 85% of the world container-capable fleet operating in liner services; and ● 88% of the total orderbook of cellular container capacity of all sizes.