The year 2016 will witness a huge number in terms of container vessels being sent to breakers’ yards for demolition and at present it has preceded the numbers in 2015. As per the recent report from shipbroker Braemar ACM, the year-to-date figure is 72 vessels, 243,000 teu, compared with 85 vessels for 187,500 teu in the whole of last year.
According to the industry consultant Alphaliner, the sudden increase in vessels’ sale for scrap – 19 container vessels reported this month alone – has come in handy in reducing the idle tonnage fleet. The report states that the laid up ships has fallen by 28% in teu terms from March. Also at 16 May the total number of teu for 269 vessels was 1.13m. The prediction gets stronger with total year’s scrapping rate which is to cross 450,000 teu – approximately 2.5 times larger than the previous year.
The current scenario is due to the rise in scrap rates – the present rate being around $300 per ldt when compared to the $200s during last year at some point. Besides there is also a need for the industry to shell out the unemployable panamax ships prior to the opening of the expanded Panama Canal this July.
As per the recent data nearly 19 ships have been sold out for scrap this month. Out of them five were panamax units of 4,200-4,800 teu and four were over-panamax vessels of 5,300-6,500 teu.
The present scrapping momentum has also brought down ships’ age that are being sent for demolition, and the youngsters below nineteen are now in the prime of the work force.
As per Craig Jallal from vesselsvalue.com, the mean of scrapping age of all containerships in 2014 and 2015 was 22 years, and the average age for a post-panamax vessel was 19.5 years.
In April, it reported that the 2002-built, 5,447 teu Conti Taipei had been sold for scrap. And this month, two 2002-built ships have been sold to breakers, the 5,600 teu Conti Helsinki and the 3,500 teu Gold.
There is little doubt that the demolition list will grow and the age of scrapped ships will fall further after the opening of the Panama Canal’s new locks on 26 June.
Source: The Loadstar
