High containership deliveries expected in 2012

The year 2012 looks set to be the biggest year for containership newbuilding deliveries in history, in terms of TEU capacity entering the cellular fleet, Exim News Service reports. According to Braemar Seascope's latest Containership Fleet Statistics, boxship deliveries in 2012 are expected to reach 1.55-m TEU—beating the previous record of 1.52-m TEU achieved in 2007.
Braemar Seascope expects cellular fleet expansion in the region of 9.5 per cent for 2012, increasing the available capacity to 16.8-m TEU.
Of the 230 ships due for delivery next year, 59 have a nominal container capacity of 10,000-TEU or more. This will introduce an additional 0.8-m TEU to this segment. Fleet growth in the 10,000-TEU plus size bracket is expected to reach 70 per cent year-on-year for 2011 and a further 57 per cent in 2012.
Bearing in mind that the vast majority of ultra-large containerships are currently deployed on Asia-Europe services, next year's delivery influx would be sufficient tonnage to create another five loops deploying 10 x 13,000-TEU vessels.
For vessels up to and including 5,100-TEU capacity, it is a very different story: the lower level of investment in newbuilding projects is apparent as growth is expected to reach only 2.9 per cent this year before hitting 3 per cent in 2012.
Since January 2010, owners have ordered 1.7-m TEU capacity of boxships with capacity of 5,100-TEU or more, compared with 0.4-m TEU of smaller ships (below 5,100-TEU).
Containerships of 10,000-TEU or more comprise 49 per cent of the global order book by capacity whereas containerships up to 5,100- TEU represent only 20 per cent of the global order book. Since the KG market has largely exited the newbuilding arena, investment in smaller containerships has been lacklustre. However, Braemar expects renewed interest in Feedermax tonnage once the current cycle of investment in post Panamax ships has waned.(Transportweekly)

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