Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the supply and demand of the container shipping market has been unbalanced, and the freight rate has skyrocketed. Shipping companies that are "not worried about money" have bought and leased them. The amount of scrap is almost zero.
According to Alphaliner data, container lines have gone on a spree to acquire more than 500 container ships in the second-hand ship market in the past 18 months. Among them, Mediterranean Shipping was the largest buyer, purchasing a total of 169 second-hand ships with a total capacity of 636,900 TEU; followed by CMA CGM, which purchased 62 ships with a total capacity of 207,000 TEU. Maersk Line only ranked third, purchasing 27 ships of 141,600 TEU. The fourth is Wan Hai Shipping, which purchased 23 ships of 139,700 TEU.
ALphaliner pointed out that at the beginning of the market recovery, the price of second-hand ships was still at a low level, which made it a better choice for container shipping companies to buy and lease. At the same time, many small non-operating ship owners (NOO) are struggling on the brink of bankruptcy due to years of low rental income, and it is difficult to resist the high prices offered by container shipping companies.
Currently in the second-hand ship market, container ship prices have soared to record highs. The hot sale situation has also made the scrapping of container ships almost zero, and the capacity in the charter market has plummeted by 1.6 million TEU.
At the same time, orders for new container ships also hit a record high last year. Clarkson's data shows that in 2021, the order volume of container ships will reach 569 ships of 4.3 million TEU, and the contract value is as high as 42.8 billion US dollars. This order level is even 29% higher than the previous record level of 3.3 million TEU in 2007. 3.5 times the average order volume in the 10 years ending in 2020.
Since 2022, there have been 124 new orders in the container ship market, with a total capacity of about 857,600 TEU. It is estimated that the order volume of container ships will remain at a high level after 2022.
