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Mothballed containership fleet surpasses 1m TEU mark

Time：2015-11-17 Browse：66 Author：RISINGSUN

A TOTAL of 35 containerships of 109,000 TEU were made idle in the last two weeks, bringing the global fleet of containerships above 500 TEU mothballed to over the 1 million TEU mark amid a depressed market.

The volume of idle capacity doubled since September, when idling of containerships across the global fleet reached the 500,000 TEU capacity mark, a new high for 2015.

This is the first time that the idle boxship fleet has surpassed 1 million TEU since 2010, according to Alphaliner, which also believes that the idle capacity is set to increase further as slack winter season approaches.

In addition shipping companies are cancelling sailings and suspending services in a move to cope with low freight rates. The expansion of the idle fleet has also been caused by widespread overcapacity spurred by ordering of new ships and slower than expected market growth, resulting in the market`s failure to absorb the surplus capacity.