Supply side pressure continues with June vessel deliveries charting a new high, while limited delivery slippage and subdued scrapping numbers dent hopes that the unbridled capacity growth can be contained. Although the SCFI bucked its recent downward trend on the back of Transpacific rate increases on 1 July, the rate revival will be short lived as capacity is still growing faster than demand despite encouraging port throughput data in May and indicative capacity utilisation data from Linerlytica showing further volume growth in June.
MSC has extended its capacity lead over Maersk to 1m TEU, with 19 new ships delivered so far this year supplemented by 31 second hand vessel purchases in 2023 that have added a further 0.5m teu of additional capacity for MSC.
Linerlytica
New containership deliveries in June reached 277,873 teu, setting a new record for the highest level of new vessel capacity delivered in a single month (see page 5 for full list of ships delivered). The total number of new ships delivered in the first 6 months of the year has reached 148 units for 975,344 teu with over 1.2m teu still due in the 2nd half of the year even after provisions for delivery slippage. Full year deliveries are set to reach 2.2m teu in 2023, which will also be a new annual delivery record, beating the previous high of 1.7m teu delivered in 2015.
In contrast, there were only 47 ships were deleted in the 1st half of this year for 84,685 teu with the pace of vessel scrapping failing to keep up with new deliveries. The current pace of capacity deletions is well below the record high of 695,850 teu that were removed in 2016.
Weekly/Monthly Market Pulse: US$1,500/US$1,800 per year