The container shipping fleet destined for the charter market continues to shrink and is not being replaced, says Alphaliner.
Non-operating container ship owners have sold around 675 vessels to carriers in a little less than three years, the analyst estimates.
These ships had a total capacity of just over 2m teu, mostly in the 700 to 9,000-teu sizes.
The lion’s share of secondhand transactions — around 60% — was snapped up by MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company and France’s CMA CGM.
MSC purchased 306 vessels and CMA CGM bought 104 vessels.
That tally includes two ships the French carrier recently took delivery of from US-based Seamax Capital Management which sold them earlier this year.
The 9,443-teu Seamax Rowayton (built 2015) has been renamed CMA CGM Nile and the Seamax Mystic (built 2016) is renamed CMA CGM Yukon.
The vessels were taken on charter by the French carrier in August 2021 for five years at $65,000 per day.
Slowdown
The pace of sales has, however, slowed in recent months.
Just 71 ships with a total capacity of 245,000 teu were sold by tonnage providers to end users since 1 November last year.
That compares with over 2m teu between August 2020 and November 2022.
In recent months, interests linked to Russian-backed operations accounted for a dozen acquisitions, Alphaliner noted.
The extent of secondhand sales points to a sharp reduction of charter market vessels in the coming years, as few newbuilding orders have been placed by tonnage providers.
The only sector where the replacement fleet exceeds the number of vessels sold is the segment from 5,300 teu to 7,500 teu, according to Alphaliner.
That tranche is expected to take over from the classic panamax sector, which is a “dying breed” where a lack of replacement is particularly prevalent, says Alphaliner.
There are also questions over the future of the sub-1,000-teu sector, where not a single newbuilding has been ordered by tonnage providers.
