Containership lay-ups set to triple in 2010

http://www.lloydslist.com/ll/news/viewArticle.htm?articleId=20017622932

ONE quarter of the world’s containership fleet will be in lay-up by 2011 and freight rate will not pick up significantly until 2014, Claus-Peter Offen, one of Germany’s largest shipowners, has forecast.
“About 1m teu is already idle. This number will double in 2009 and triple in 2010,” the shipowner told a ship finance forum in Hamburg.
Mr Offen plans to lay up 10 containerships, each with a capacity of 1,200 teu-2,500 teu.
“Lay-ups are necessary to cope with the current crisis,” Mr Offen told the eighth annual German ship finance forum, arguing that the market for containerships is suffering from massive overcapacity.
“Since we do not know when demand is coming back we had to concentrate on the supply side,” he said. “But we won’t see as many cancellations of [containership] newbuildings and scrappings as in the bulker sector.”