Alphaliner: Small ship shortage brewing

Alphaliner: Small ship shortage brewing    The liner carrier industry could be facing a shortage of feeder vessels in coming years, the maritime news service Alphaliner theorized in its latest newsletter Monday.
   While that might sound preposterous considering the severe overcapacity situation facing the industry, the thinking goes that too many vessels in the current order book are 4,000 TEUs or larger. Small vessels of 1,000 to 2,000 TEUs account for 10 percent of capacity on the order book as do vessels 10,000 TEUs or larger.
   Another pressure on the supply of smaller ships is that most of the scrapping this year has occurred in this class of ships. And the 1,000- to 2,000-TEU segment of ships has also recorded the largest number of order cancellations this year, with Alphaliner suggesting that some of the ships on the order book will struggle to find necessary finance for completion.
   'The raw fleet figures for small ships suggest that it could be time for owners to consider ordering vessels in this category, especially in the 1,000 to 1,250-TEU range,' Alphaliner said. 'However, owners need to be cautious not to be caught up in the 'me too' rush, which had led to the current oversupply of large containerships.'
   Alphaliner also suggested that even those carriers who might entertain the thought of ordering small vessels right now might find it hard to obtain credit to do so.
   'Some banks are unwilling and unable to provide the money needed to proceed with the transfer of fully completed ships to their owners, let alone to pay installments to pursue the construction of half-finished ships,' the report said.
   According to a recent forecast by Alphaliner, containership scrapping could reach 350,000 TEUs this year, about three times 2008’s level.
   Already about 250,000 TEUs have been scrapped in 2009. That has helped slightly slow the growth of the containership fleet in July when new deliveries of 73,600 TEUs were offset by 34 ships with 54,000 TEUs going to the breakers, Alphaliner reported.