Idle fleet continues to slide

This is the lowest level recorded since February 2009 and it compares to 495 ships for 1.24

Mteu recorded on 1 March. The number of idle ships will continue to decrease as several idle units of 5,000 teu and above are to join new assignments in the coming few weeks.

The carrier-controlled idle fleet dropped marginally to 630,000 teu compared to 633,000 teu two weeks ago. However, this figure will fall significantly over the coming weeks as new services will help carriers to clear out some of their idle tonnage. The four new services currently confirmed to come on stream on the Far East-Europe sector in March and April alone, will employ 38 ships totalling 208,000 teu. Most of these will be taken from the current pool of idle ships, whereas the remaining ships will be newbuildings.

The Non-Operating Owner (NOO) idle fleet fell from 609,000 teu to 590,000 teu over the last two weeks due to the pick-up in market demand, which was especially noticeable for ships in the 1,000-2,000 teu range, employed on intra-regional services. Twelve vessels in this size category found new employment over the last fortnight. The trend should continue with the stronger demand expected over the coming few months.