14-year-old post-panamax containership sold for scrap

The sale of a relatively young 5,447-TEU post-panamax vessel “does not appear to be a one-off event,” according to the mapping, ship search and valuation service VesselsValue.    The mapping, ship search and valuation service VesselsValue, says the sale of a 14-year-old 5,447-TEU postpanamax containership “does not appear to be a one-off event.”
   Craig Jallal, senior data editor for VesselsValue says the average age of containerships of all sizes sold for scrap in 2014 and 2015, was around 22 years old.
   “There have been relatively few Post-Panamax containership sold for scrap, but the average age at the time of sale was around 19.5 years old. Therefore, the 2002-built, 5,447-TEU post-panamax containership Conti Taipei was sold relatively young, but this does not appear to be a one-off event.”
   “There have been three other 2002-built post-panamax containerships sold in the last six months,” writes Jallal. “All three were built at ‘quality’ shipyards in South Korea, and at the time of sale their next special surveys were not due for at least twelve months or more.”
   He said all three of those ships were owned by German companies, and had been inactive at least six to three months before the sale, according to the VesselsValue’s vessel tracking module called “VV@.”
   Searching its database, for similar post-panamax containerships built between 1999 and 2003, owned by a German company, and with special surveys due before May 1 next year, VesselsValue found 17 candidate ships from a potential fleet of over 1,000 post-panamax containerships. Two of those 17 vessels on the candidate list have been in-active for at least eight months, it said.
   “Now that the scrap price is firmer, it will be interesting to see if these relatively young post-panamax containerships are sold for scrap, too,” Jallal said.