Container ships have become larger but the number of companies in most markets has fallen over the past decade, according to the latest report from the United National Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on maritime transport.
The number of companies whose ships sail into each country has on an average shrunk by 27 per cent during the last 10 years, from 22 in 2004 to just 16 in 2013, the report said, according to The Hindu in Chennai.
However, the average size of a containership has almost doubled during the period, with the largest vessels deployed on the busiest trade lanes, such as on the Asia-Europe route. This has led to smaller ships being operated on the North-South and intra-regional routes such as Latin America, Africa and South Asia.
"As regards vessel sizes, since 2004 the average container-carrying capacity of the largest ship has almost doubled, from 2,812 TEU 10 years ago to 5,540 TEU in 2013. The size of the largest existing ships has also almost doubled during these 10 years (from 8,238 TEU to 16,020 TEU)," said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report, which is based on a database of 159 countries.
The report also points out that the introduction of container ships that can carry over 15,000 TEU has led to a cascading effect - it has forced ships of over 8,000 TEU, which were the biggest in 2004, to find new markets in Latin America, Africa or South Asia. India has also seen a similar trend of average vessel sizes increasing in the last 10 years, said Drewry Consulting director Shailesh Garg.
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