Paris: A dozen container ships with capacities ranging from 5,000 to 8,500 teu were believed to be lying idle at the ports of Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai early this month, according to French box watchers AXS-Alphaliner.
Alphaliner said it expected a buildup of idle ships in the 3,500- to 5,000 teu range in the coming weeks in the wake of further service closures.
It said there were a dozen unemployed ships in the 2,000 to 3,000 teu range, and that about 50 ships in the 1,000 to 2,000 teu range were idle. It estimated the idled fleet at roughly 150,000 teu, or approximately 1.25 percent of the global fleet.
Alphaliner said that at the deepest point in the 2002 crisis, in April of that year, it counted 180,000 teu of idle ships. At the time, that represented 3.2 percent of the fleet, which was much smaller than the current fleet.
Analysts suggest far more than 150,000 teu will have to be laid up or scrapped ?" perhaps more than a million slots. [18/11/08]
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