Global deliveries of new containerships have surpassed one million TEU since the beginning of 2011 with 154 vessels delivered and 280,000 TEU more to come by the end of the year, says Alphaliner.
""Non-deliveries" due to cancellations, deferrals and slippage have fallen to 8.5 per cent, only twice their long-term historical levels, as the bulk of the delivery deferrals was negotiated in 2009 and 2010," the Paris-based maritime consultancy said in its weekly newspaper.
"2009 and 2010 were exceptional years as the financial crisis led owners and carriers to defer the deliveries of a significant part of the order book, as well as to cancel part of their orders. Such crisis-driven initiatives were not to be repeated in 2011. Cancellations have actually been marginal this year with no impact on deliveries scheduled for 2011," said the report.
Scrapping and conversions of older box ships since January 2011 have reached 65,000 TEU, with a further 15,000 TEU expected to leave the cellular fleet during the last three months of this year. As a result, the annual net growth rate of the containership fleet in 2011 is expected to reach 8.4 per cent, it said.