Carrier first half capacity climbs 15%

Carrier first half capacity climbs 15%    Ocean carriers have added a massive amount of new capacity in the first half of 2010, according to the maritime news service Alphaliner, which projects industry-wide capacity has grown 15.3 percent to 13.3 million TEUs.
   That growth includes delivery of new vessels and reactivation of idle ships.
   Among the carriers to introduce the most tonnage to active services are Mediterranean Shipping Co. (196,000 TEUs) and CSAV (169,500 TEUs), followed by Maersk Line and Hanjin Shipping. CSAV has seen the highest increase in capacity by percentage of its fleet on Jan. 1 (a 51 percent hike that has taken the Chilean carrier into the top eight by fleet capacity).
   Meanwhile, Evergreen has dropped to sixth in capacity — the first time since the 1980s that the Taiwanese carrier has been outside the top five. Evergreen was the only major carrier to abstain from ship ordering in the most recent cycle, though Alphaliner said it has recently chartered two 10,000-TEU ships from Zim and two 8,400-TEU ships from China Shipping.
   MSC's increase in capacity represents a 13 percent rise over its fleet capacity at the beginning of the year. Alphaliner also reported that in July the Swiss carrier plans to introduce two 14,000-TEU vessels on its Lion service between Asia and Europe (that service has operated with vessels of 9,200 to 11,600 TEUs). By the end of July, MSC will also fully operate its Silk Asia/Europe loop with vessels of 13,800 TEUs to 14,000 TEUs.