More laid-up ships back in service

The number of laid-up ships fell to its lowest since last July this week as carriers continue to return ships into service.

The latest figures from Paris-based analyst AXS Alphaliner reveal that the capacity of ships laid-up this week stands at 1.24m teu – 9.4% of the world’s containership fleet.

The figures also reveal that the tonnage of carrier-owned laid-up ships has fallen from 1.03m teu to 633,000teu.

Alphaliner predicted that the idle fleet could fall below 1m teu over the next couple of months as new services and additional demand, created by super-slow-steaming, absorb surplus ships and a few idle veterans of 2,500-4,000teu are scrapped.

Alphaliner said: “These moves could lead to the employment of about 40 additional ships of more than 3,500teu by the end of April, with more than 15 units drawn from the pool of idle ships.

“A number of carrier-controlled units of 4,000-7,000teu are still idle, but some of these could be re-activated at short notice, if justified by the demand growth.”

As a result of carrier optimism for the summer season, charter market ships of 4,000-5,500teu are now becoming harder to find, following a wave of charter deals over the last few weeks.