The world ships regularly engaged in liner services, has reached the 11 million TEU capacity, amounting to 154.1 million tonnes at the end of May, according to an AXS-AlphaLiner News survey.
Surveying 5,823 ships, the AXS researchers found that 92 per cent were cellular ships and the remaining eight per cent were split between non-celled containerships, multi-purpose tonnage and ro/ro vessels.
"We expect that the 12 million TEU mark will be reached in January 2008," said the AXS newsletter.
The global 10 million TEU mark had been reached later than expected, partly because several large multipurpose ships of up to 1,875 TEU each, left the trade to become tramps, representing the disappearance of 45,000 TEU, and partly because of slides in deliveries from Polish and Chinese yards, representing the absence of 37,000 TEU with scrapping subtracting another 30,000 TEU. |
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