More than two million TEU of new-build container ships have been introduced this year as idle vessel tonnage hits an all time low.

With the introduction of record numbers of container ships since January, it is perhaps surprising that only 0.6% of all registered box vessels were recorded as not operating on a service loop last month. This has largely been driven by longer transit times on Asia to Europe routes due to the situation in the Red Sea, but also reflects an increase in global volumes.

As global demand for ocean freight hit a record high of 16 million TEU in one month recently, the lack of spare ships has hindered carrier’s capacity management and also contributed to the fall in service reliability witnessed on Asia routes.

Only 67 vessels, with a total capacity of 195,159 TEU were idle on 12th August, and the vast majority of those ships were under 3,000 TEU. These smaller ships are not economically viable for the busier routes and would provided little help in easing capacity on Asia-European services.

New container ships, including many Ultra Large Container Vessels (UCLV’s), have entered the market in their droves during the past couple of years and that trend looks set to continue with many carriers having large order books.

The world’s largest carrier, MSC, have recently placed orders for six 19,000 TEU ships and eight 11,000 TEU ships which are all to be dual LNG fuelled. LNG, or liquefied natural gas, is understood to be the ‘clean’ fossil fuel that is best-placed to help the world transition to a carbon-free future.