The number of vessels in the idle containership fleet has fallen to pre-economic crisis levels, with just over 70 ships recorded as unemployed.The latest figures from analyst Alphaliner show that the idle fleet has reached a 30-month low with 71 ships, or 134,000teu, laid up.
This represents around 0.9% of the overall cellular fleet and is the lowest that the idle fleet has been at since September 2008.
At the peak of the crisis, close to 400 non-carrier-controlled (NCC) ships and 200 carrier-controlled vessels were unemployed.
Alphaliner said: “Twenty-six carrier-controlled ships are currently unemployed, which represents 75,000teu.
“However, apart from a few over-aged, mothballed ships and some damaged units, essentially the entire usable cellular fleet under carrier control is expected to be employed by the end of May.
“Two ships of above 5,000teu remain unemployed so far, but both the 10,062teu Zim Djibouti and the 8,440teu Zim San Diego are to join the newly-launched Asia Europe Express 2 (AEX2) service, a loop jointly operated by Zim, CSCL and Evergreen.”
A further 45 units for NCC accounts, aggregating 59,000teu, are presently idle.
Alphaliner said supply and demand was currently “fairly balanced”, but added that declining freight rates could result in the size of the idle fleet increasing again soon.
It added: “Containership demand has been sustained since August 2010 in spite of the recent slump in freight rates. On a number of key routes freight rates are now below break-even levels.
“Mounting carrier losses may lead to a rebound in idle figures by the end of the year.”
The latest data from the Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI) shows that all-in spot rates on services from Shanghai to Northern Europe hit $939 per teu. At the start of the year, they were at $1,401 per teu.
Prior to the financial crisis, which erupted in September 2008, the idle containership fleet hovered at 40-70 ships on average.