Alphaliner: Big box ship boom in 2011

Alphaliner: Big box ship boom in 2011    Maritime news service Alphaliner said a record number of very large and ultra-large containerships with capacity of more than 7,500 TEUs will be delivered next year.
   Collectively they will pump 860,000 TEUs of capacity into the world containership fleet next year, accounting for about 63 percent of all new slots due for delivery in 2011.
   Alphaliner's latest weekly newsletter forecasts delivery of 49 ships in 2011 with capacity of more than 10,000 TEUs compared to 29 in 2010 and 15 in 2009, as well as delivery of 27 ships with capacity of 7,500-9,999 TEUs in 2011 compared to 32 in 2010 and 18 in 2009.
   Most of the big containerships delivered in 2010 have been assigned to Asia/Europe routes, while most of the remaining units have joined Far East/U.S. routes, Alphaliner said. “The expected VLCS deliveries in 2011 are sufficient for carriers to mount some four to five new high-capacity Asia/Europe strings and five Asia/U.S. strings, with most of these expected to be launched in the first half of the year. There will also be significant cascading of 5,000-8,000-TEU ships, which are expected to be redeployed on the Middle East and South American sectors.”