Superships push up capacity ahead of slump

CAPACITY ON the world's container fleet has just edged past 5-million TEUs (twenty foot equivalent units), and will grow to 6-m TEUs before the end of 2002, according to a leading industry analyst.
The five million mark was reached in June when South Korea's Hyundai shipyard delivered a 6 700-TEU ship
to P&O Nedlloyd, reported London shipbroker H. Clarkson.
It took almost three years to add the last 1-m TEUs to the world fleet's capacity - but an orderbook of 1.7-m TEUs is still outstanding.
"There seems every prospect that the 6-m TEU barrier will be breached by the end of next year," according to Clarkson Research Studies, the shipbroker's research unit.
It calculates that - without demolition, or slippage in deliveries - the next million TEUs will be achieved in September 2002.
Another 81 superships are due to go into service during the next 18-months. But Clarkson warns that the leap in capacity risks undermining the industry.
"This new record," said the report, "and the one about to be broken next year, are likely to coincide with a slump in the world economy."