More than 300 big ships are coming!
On the one hand, the demand in the container shipping market is weak, the freight rate continues to fall, and the capacity is beginning to be surplus. On the other hand, dozens of newly built ultra-large container ships are about to be delivered and operated. Following two consecutive years of order waves in 2020 and 2021, the "delivery wave" in the container shipping industry will officially start this year.
According to Alphaliner's data, the top 11 shipping companies will receive 89 large container ships this year, including 31 24,000TEU (MGX), 49 13,000-15,000TEU (NPX) and 9 7,000TEU and above ships (XXX); In 2024 this number will further increase to 130 ships, 96 ships in 2025, and 315 ships in the next three years. Including new ships for non-trunk trade, these 11 shipping companies ordered a total of 499 new ships.
Alphaliner's data shows that as of February 1, the total order volume was 7.69 million TEU, slightly lower than 30% of the active fleet capacity; among them, 2.48 million TEU (32%) will be delivered this year, and 2.95 million TEU (38%) will be delivered in 2024. ), and 2.26 million TEU (30%) will be delivered later.
"From mid-March onwards, the changes will be evident," said Alphaliner analyst Stefan Verberckmoes. "This wave of new construction comes at a time when demand is shrinking."
Alphaliner said that a large number of 24,000 TEU container ships in Asian shipyards are nearing completion. From mid-March to early April, Mediterranean Shipping alone will invest no less than four 24,000 TEU container ships in the Asia-Europe route network of the 2M Alliance.
Among them, Mediterranean Shipping plans to receive the 24,116TEU container ship "MSC Tessa" on March 14. This is the first of the four ships of the same type ordered by Mediterranean Shipping in Hudong Zhonghua, and will be deployed on the Asia-Northern Europe AE6/Lion ring route starting from Ningbo. After that, the 24346TEU container ship "MSC IRINA" built by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group is scheduled to depart from Qingdao on March 21 to join the Asia-Mediterranean AE10/Jade route service.
On March 28, the second 24,116TEU "MSC Celestino Maresca" built by Hudong Zhonghua will also be delivered for operation and join the Asia-Northern Europe AE6/Lion route. On April 19, the first 24,100TEU "MSC Raya" built by Jiangnan Shipbuilding will depart from Shanghai for the maiden voyage of the AE55/Griffin loop.
That means the title of world's largest container ship will change hands several times in the coming weeks. First, the 24,188TEU "OOCL SPAIN" built by Nantong COSCO Shipping Kawasaki for OOCL will exceed the "MSC Tessa" of Mediterranean Shipping, and then the 24,346TEU "MSC IRINA" of Mediterranean Shipping will surpass "Orient Spain" Number.
Alphaliner pointed out that for 2M alliance members Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company, these new megaships "could be a difficult challenge" and some maiden voyages may be cancelled.
According to Alphaliner, Maersk Line’s 15,413TEU newly built container ship “Maersk Canyon” is scheduled to start its maiden voyage from China on March 1, and is deployed on the AE1/Shogun loop of the 2M alliance. However, the route was disrupted for several weeks in December, January and February and were "virtually suspended". As a result, the ship's maiden voyage was postponed until mid-May. The ship was built by South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding and was delivered in January this year.
In addition, the 15,294TEU newly built container ship "MSC Sofia" of Mediterranean Shipping was originally planned to be deployed on the AE1/Shogun ring route, but the current voyage has been cancelled, and it will be put into the independent new route Falcon Asia-India/Middle East of Mediterranean Shipping from February 27. The ship was built by South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries and delivered in February this year.
MSC plans to receive 33 large new container ships this year, ranging in size from 13,000TEU to 24,000TEU. Alphaliner speculates that as MSC prepares to end the 2M alliance with Maersk at the end of 2024, the company will try to channel most of the new capacity in its fleet into independent new routes outside the 2M alliance.
MSC, currently the world's largest ocean-going container line, has 92 of these ships under construction, including 33 to be delivered this year.
CMA CGM's main line ship orders ranked second with 38 ships, most of which will be delivered next year. COSCO SHIPPING (including OOCL) ranked third in the world with 32 new ship orders.
Alphaliner warned in a new report: "The huge new ship order volume is like a sword hanging above the market, and a large number of new ship deliveries in the next few months will inevitably lead to the return of excess capacity."
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