New ships roll out as operators trim east-west capacity

New ships roll out as operators trim east-west capacity New containerships continue to pour out of shipyards even as carriers trim capacity on major east-west routes and containership charter rates plummet.
   Information service AXS-Alphaliner reports that although orders for new box ships have dried up and the order book has fallen to below 6.5 million TEUs for the first time in 13 months, “newbuilding deliveries go on at an average rhythm of 4,350 TEUs per day,' or some 130,000 TEUs per month.
   The existing cellular fleet comprises 4,651 ships totaling 12.26 million TEUs, the company said. Only 47 ships with capacity of 76,000 TEUs have been sent to the breakers this year, half in October and November.
   AXS Alphaliner said in its current newsletter that capacity on the three major east-west container routes — Asia/North America, Asia/Europe and Europe/North America — has been trimmed 6.7 percent or 61,000 TEUs to 855,000 TEUs since Aug. 1.
   Far East to Europe/Mediterranean capacity has been trimmed 9 percent to 380,000 TEUs; Far East to North America routes have been cut 5.5 percent to 357,000 TEUs; and transatlantic services covering Europe and the Mediterranean were down 2.5 percent to 118,000 TEUs.
   Meanwhile, the Hamburg Shipbrokers Association said its Container Ship Time Charter Assessment Index (ConTex) now stands at 405 compared to 1022 in February. The index is based on charter rates for 1,100, 1,700 and 2,500-TEU ships.
   The association said more than half of the entire worldwide fleet of container vessels is operated from Germany or by international companies that are mainly in German ownership.
   “This fleet, and also some of the international container vessel tonnage, is almost exclusively or to a large extent brokered by freight brokers based in Hamburg,” the group said, making it “the largest containership time-charter market. Hamburg brokers control some 75 percent of all containership charter tonnage available in the free market.” ' Chris Dupin