by Lloyd's List

THE proportion of commercially idle containerships hit an all-time low in the first ten months of 2024, as disruptions in the Red Sea and elevated demand forced carriers to activate all available ships, including those previously sidelined.

Data from Alphaliner shows that on average, just 0.7% of the global cellular boxship fleet sat idle from January to October this year.

This figure is even lower than the 0.9% average idle rate recorded in the same 10-month period between 2021 and 2022 when impact from the Covid pandemic was at its peak, according to the consultancy.

The ultra-low idling comes despite massive fleet growth, with containership fleet expanding nearly 30% from 23.7m in October 2020 to 30.6m teu today.

Effectively, 99.3% of the current global cellular fleet is actively deployed or out of service for non-commercial reasons, such as maintenance and repairs.

Larger ships over 12,500 teu have shown near zero idling in 2024 as they divert around the Cape of Good Hope, leading to tight supply of mega-ship capacity.

Carriers have also delayed non-critical drydocking to maximize fleet availability, said Alphaliner.

Data from research firm Linerlytica shows such trend has continued, with idled tonnage totalling just 32 units or 94,011 teu as of November 1, accounting for merely 0.3% of the global fleet.

“Containership charter rates have continued to firm with idle capacity remaining at less than 100,000 teu as carriers continue to snap away at all available tonnage,” Linerlytica said in a recent report.

Prolonged Red Sea diversions are expected to keep squeezing available effective capacity in 2025, said Drewry Maritime Advisors’ deputy head Jayendu Krishna.

The resumption of full-scale Suez Canal transits still faces great uncertainty and is unlikely to occur anytime soon, he added.

However, Krishna also pointed to looming pressure from the supply side, with the containership fleet projected to grow another 5% in 2025 after surging 11% in 2024.