27 September 2023 (Lloyd's List) - IT WAS only a decade ago that boxships of 14,000 teu were considered the workhorse of the Asia-Europe trade.
But those ships have been increasingly replaced by far larger tonnage of up to 24,000 teu as carriers have sought to reduce slot costs on the long-distance head haul route.
At the same time, 14,000 teu class vessels have started to emerge in trades once served by far smaller ships.
And it is not just older ships being cascaded down from the Asia-Europe trade. Figures from Alphaliner show that of the 62 neo-panamax ships in the range of 13,000 teu-16,550 teu that will enter service in 2023, almost a quarter have been assigned to north-south services from Asia-Latin America, Africa or the Middle East and Indian sub-continent.
Vessels of between 12,500 teu-15,200 teu already make up a third of all tonnage on the north-south routes, up from less than a fifth this time in the past year, Alphaliner noted.
“The percentage of new neo-panamax capacity assigned to north-south services is expected to further increase as 15 yet-to-be-delivered newbuildings have not appeared in sailing schedules yet,” Alphaliner said.
“Ship names such as CMA CGM Bahia (IMO: 9938248) or Cosco Shipping Brazil (IMO: 9945837), however, suggest that these vessels will likely end up in Asia-Latin America loops.”
Latin American trades have already seen a significant upsizing of vessels, with the largest ship on the Asia-South America west coast trade now the 16,000 teu MSC Chiyo (IMO: 9947110).
“The average size of vessels operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co on this route now stands at 13,743 teu,” Alphaliner said.
“This average capacity is only exceeded by CMA CGM, which operates 12 ships with an average capacity of 14,733 teu per unit.”
MSC had been the most active carrier in directing tonnage to the north-south routes, it added.
“This is however not surprising as MSC is taking the highest number of new neo-panamaxes in service this year, Alphaliner said.
Neo-panamaxes were also likely to appear on a number of other trades in the coming year as their numbers swell. Another 255 of these ships ranging
from 12,500 teu-17,000 teu are on order, representing almost half the orderbook.
But the drive will also come from an influx of ultra-large tonnage deployed on the Asia-Europe trades.
“The 58 megamax vessels of 23,000 teu-24,346 teu on order are expected to lead to the cascading of the same amount of neo-panamax tonnage from Asia-Europe to other trades once they enter service,” Alphaliner said.
