Idled capacity centers on three carriers

Idled capacity centers on three carriers    Only three of the world’s top 20 container lines have any appreciable amount of capacity idled despite it being the middle of the traditional slack container shipping season, according to figures from the maritime news service Alphaliner.
   Zim (9.4 percent of total fleet capacity), COSCO (7.5 percent), and Hapag-Lloyd (3.4 percent) are the only lines to have shelved more than 2 percent of their capacity. And Alphaliner indicated that ships from those carriers are due to be reactivated soon.
   Overall, 2.3 percent of the global container fleet is idled, with hardly a ship out of operation from the world’s four biggest operators — Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co., CMA CGM and Evergreen. Of those, only Maersk has any ships mothballed.