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THERE is a shortage of ships for charter in the short to medium term as container transport demand continues to outpace forecasts.
As a result charter rates have moved up significantly over the past two weeks with AXS-Alphaliner News reporting that it's a shipowners' market.
Competition is expected to increase as shipping lines scramble to secure available vessels, particularly as the US-Asia and Asia-Europe trades are entering the peak shipping season.
For the second half of the year, ship availability is as follows: For July to December, the number of 4,000- to 5,000-TEU vessels fell from 13 ships on January 1 to one ship on July 10. For the 3,000- to 4,000-TEU ships, this dropped from 41 to nine, for the 2,500- to 2,999-TEU ships it fell from 69 to 16, for the 2,000- to 2,500-TEU vessels, it was down from 72 to 16 and for the 1,500- to 2,000-TEU ships it was down from 190 to 50, according to AXS-Alphaliner News.
The ship availability for 2008 stand as of July 10 at: sixteen 4,000- to 5,000-TEU vessels, twenty-nine 3,000- to 4,000-TEU ships, and eighty-seven 2,500- to 2,999-TEU vessels.
Asian Shipper News
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