By Mike Wackett,

(The Loadstar) – Laid-up containership capability “remains at an alarmingly high level”, based on the most recent overview by Alphaliner and, worryingly for shipowners, there are nonetheless no indicators of demand choosing up.

In a survey taken on 4 April, the guide recorded 325 idle containerships at anchor – equating to 1.48m teu and seven.4% of the worldwide mobile fleet.

According to the Alphaliner information, mothballed tonnage consists of 54 vessels of 5,100-7,499 teu, and 55 of seven,500 teu and over, with their operators all desperately looking for employment for them at virtually any charge.

Alphaliner mentioned it had seen additional “faltering demand” for constitution tonnage up to now two weeks – a time of 12 months when demand is often robust – “dashing hopes of seeing overcapacity decrease in the foreseeable future”.

It is but extra proof of the market’s extreme troubles, it added: “With simply too much capacity afloat, and inadequate demand.”

It follows that it’s now an operators’ market, and any fixtures being made are on each day rent charges that hardly cowl working prices, with open-ended choices and free positioning included.

The nightmare is worst for homeowners of panamax vessels of 4,000-5,000 teu and the over-panamax sector of ships as much as 7,500 teu in measurement, however Alphaliner repotrs that the one fixture carried out within the 7,500-9,500 teu sector up to now fortnight was the constitution of the ER Vancouver to MSC for a 12-month interval at an all-time low of simply $6,500 per day.

An identical sized ship would have commanded 4 or 5 instances that charge a 12 months in the past.

The rock-bottom constitution charges are anticipated to have an extra affect on vessel worth, finally obliging homeowners to take impairment losses and doubtlessly breaching the loan-to-value covenants of mortgages.

The diminished ship values and dire prospects for the panamax sector – significantly as soon as the enlarged Panama Canal opens in June – are forcing homeowners to rethink scrapping as an possibility. The choice to ship a ship to the breaker’s yard may have been made considerably simpler for homeowners by a current slight improve in scrap costs to round $300 per LDT.

London-based shipbroker Braemar ACM reviews that 41 container vessels, totalling 143,000 teu, have been offered for demolition up to now this 12 months – in contrast with the 85 (187,500 teu) scrapped in the entire of 2015 – suggesting that 2016 could possibly be a document 12 months for ship scrapping.

Meanwhile, Alphaliner has famous a brand new document for the largest containership ever offered for demolition: claimed to be the 6,479 teu DS Kingdom, which, having been in-built 2001 can be one of many youngest ships to have ended its closing voyage on a seashore within the Indian sub-continent.

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