Despite the Golden Week holiday period in China and freight rates continuing to fall, the number of idle boxships remained low and virtually unchanged at the beginning of October.
The number of vessels currently not being used amounts to 0.9% of the total capacity of the global fleet.
“While 0.9% is the highest proportion of idle tonnage to total fleet in a year, at this stage the liner sector can still be considered ‘fully employed’,” says consultancy firm Alphaliner.
However, the latest survey by the analysis company reveals that the total capacity of idle ships has increased by 7,155 TEUs over the last two weeks.
The blank sailings scheduled during the Golden Week holiday period have not yet led to a significant change in overall tonnage inactivity.
Instead, carriers and shipowners seem to have used this period to send their vessels for repair or maintenance at various shipyards. The capacity hauled up in yards, whether for maintenance, repair, retrofitting or conversion, rose to 2.1% of the total fleet, an improvement of 0.5 percentage points compared to September.
Translation by Giles Foster
