Shipyards are soon to face pressure to put off containership deliveries scheduled for next year.
A huge number of newbuildings, many with nominal capacity of 12,000 teu or more, will be completed this year at a time when the liner trades are losing vast sums of money.
Maersk Broker estimates that deliveries will total around 1.6m teu in 2012, but warns that the numbers for 2013 are even more challenging. A record 1.7m teu of additional boxship capacity is due to be handed over next year, according to the Danish firm. These two years compare with previous highs of 1.5m teu in 2008 and 1.4m teu in 2010.
But it is uncertain whether all deliveries scheduled for next year will go ahead.
“If the poor market conditions continue to prevail, as expected, for at least six to nine months, we may eventually see increased negotiations for postponement of 2013 deliveries,” Maersk Broker said in its latest monthly report.
It expects boxship newbuilding activity to be depressed in the first half of 2012, with no bounce-back likely until the charter market picks up, which is not expected until at least the latter half of this year.
The market is expected to remain extremely subdued for much of this year, the broker predicts. The only owner in touch with shipbuilders is Evergreen, known to have held talks about 14,000 teu ships, although almost certainly on a charter basis. However, market sources say the two sides are some distance apart in terms both of charter rates and contract duration.