The race for market share among shipping lines has pushed the containership orderbook-to-fleet ratio to a new high, of almost 42%.
Market leader MSC continues to widen the capacity gulf with its peers, enhancing its bulging orderbook last week with ten 21,850 teu ships ordered from Hengli Heavy Industry Group and five 21,750 teu vessels from Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard, all for delivery in 2029.
Linerlytica notes MSC’s orderbook now stands at 170 ships, of 3m teu, compared with its nearest rival, Maersk, which is building 73 ships of 900,000 teu.
Also last week, Taiwan’s Wan Hai Lines ordered seven 11,000 teu ships and one at 9,200 teu at Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding, also for delivery in 2029. The 11,000 teu ships cost $121m each, the 9,200 teu, $107m.
The vessels are built to be compatible with methanol and LNG dual-fuelling, suggesting that Wan Hai is keeping its options open on a range of alternative fuels. Its orderbook now comprises 45 ships of just over 470,000 teu, putting it on track to surpass its compatriot peer, Yang Ming, which is building 21 ships of around 274,000 teu. Wan Hai has no chartered vessels currently and its fleet stands at 625,305 teu, compared with the 754,482 teu of Yang Ming.
Primarily an intra-Asia carrier, Wan Hai restarted transpacific services during Covid and has not looked back, launching services to South America, the Mediterranean and the Middle East in recent years, demonstrating it will be in the mid-to-long-haul business for the long term.
Meanwhile, more new vessels are expected to be commissioned, Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc hinted in its half-yearly earnings call that the carrier could abandon its self-imposed fleet cap.
Since 2018, the Danish carrier’s fleet growth has been limited to just 2%, compared with 11.7% by its key rivals.
During its Q2 earnings call, Mr Clerc said: “Volume growth has outpaced the fleet growth by two percentage points, thanks to the efficiencies that the Gemini Cooperation has delivered. [Vessel] utilisation remains very high, at 96%, with strong discipline in our fleet management.
“Gemini is now fully in the base, so future asset turn uplift will likely be less pronounced, meaning that volume growth will be more in line with fleet growth in the coming quarters. Moreover, with utilisation already at a high level, the task for us will be to ensure that we have the capacity to grow.”
Source: The Loadstar