Idle containership tonnage is forecast to rise sharply over the next few weeks, with Alphaliner expecting the amount of inactive capacity to double by the end of the year.
The firm is anticipating an idle fleet of more than 500,000 teu by early 2012, equivalent to more than 3% of the total.
That compares with 270,000 teu, or 1.8%, at the moment, with the number of ships in lay-up increasing over the past few weeks as lines start to withdraw services.
At the end of August, the idle fleet stood at 211,000 teu, or 1.4%.
The largest sector suffering from idle capacity is in the 1,000 teu-1,999 teu category, with 46 ships idle, according to Alphaliner. Another 23 in the 3,000 teu-4,999 teu bracket are out of work, but only one ship in excess of 7,500 teu is reported to be inactive.