Need a way to gauge how far demand has fallen for container lines? Not one containership was ordered in the last three months of 2008, according to AXS-Alphaliner.
"It is the first time in at least two decades that no containership orders were recorded for three months in a row," the Paris-based maritime research company said in its latest newsletter. "Meanwhile, a few existing orders have been canceled or converted to other ship types."
The containership order book has fallen to 6.2 million TEUs, its lowest level in 15 months. In the first nine months of 2008, 204 vessels were ordered, with a total capacity of 1 million TEUs. On Jan. 1, the world's containership fleet stood at 4,659 ships totaling 12.3 million TEUs of capacity, 13.2 percent higher than the year before. The total capacity of ships, cellular or non-cellular, running on liner trades increased 11.1 percent to 13 million TEUs.
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