New vessel capacity in 2011 doubles 2007

   The total capacity of cargo vessels delivered in 2011 was double that of 2007, according to the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics’ analysis of IHS Fairplay data.
   In terms of deadweight tons, the global fleet saw 164.5 million metric tons of capacity, up from 146.5 million metric tons in 2011 and 82.5 million metric tons in 2007.
   The preponderance of the new deliveries come in the form of bulk carriers and tankers. Those two categories represented nearly 87 percent of all capacity delivered, compared to less than 9 percent from the containership sector.
   In fact, containership capacity delivered in 2011 was slightly down from 2010 (14.6 million metric tons, compared to 16.4 million metric tons in 2010). However, the vessels are getting inescapably larger, with the average ship delivered in 2007 being 40,487 tons, compared to 75,257 tons in 2011.