Whereas in mid-2020 the container shipping business was still in a severe crisis - more than 550 container ships were idle (12% of global slot capacity), some shipping companies even had to call on government support, and forecasts at that time were not very optimistic - the situation has changed completely by mid-2021. Almost all container ships available worldwide are currently chartered out, and the shipping companies are profiting from the boom and reaping high profits. Due to the high demand (with scarce capacities), freight rates for containers have risen to new record highs. To underline this, shipping a 40-foot container from Shanghai to Rotterdam in May this year costs about $10,700, 6.5 times more than in May last year, according to the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.
Shipbuilding yards are also benefiting from the boom in container shipping, at least the yards in China and South Korea, which won 97% of newbuilding contracts in the January-May 2021 period. A total of 239 container ships with 2.2 million TEU were ordered in the said period, which is more than the order volume of 2019 and 2020 combined (1.8 million TEU).
The unprecedented increase in all market indicators since the beginning of this year has led to the fact that, on the one hand, there is a very large shortage of available empty containers in some trading centres, and on the other hand, the volume of empty containers in other port regions significantly exceeds the volume of cargo available for export. Thus, repositioning empty containers on an international scale is becoming increasingly important, as, for example, too large a proportion of empty containers on a ship creates enormous static problems. Shipping companies are responding to this imbalance by taking advantage of exceptional freight rates and transporting empty containers back to Asia to load cargo, in the expectation that the profit from the return voyage will cover the loss from the empty voyage. This is also reflected in the record number of empty containers exported, e.g. loaded at the Port of Los Angeles, as the chart above impressively shows.
https://www.isl.org/en/news/new-orders-container-ships-rise-to-record-level-1st-half-2021
2021/7/12 9:41:32