Idle fleet falls as ESS mops up more boxships

The idle container ship count fell marginally over the last fortnight as Extra Slow Steaming (ESS) continued to put more vessels back into active service. According to the latest Alphaliner weekly newsletter, the number of idle ships fell from 581 at the beginning of January to 562 units as at 18 January 2010. The total idle fleet currently stands at 1.44 million TEU compared to 1.51 million TEU two weeks ago.

The carrier-operated fleet dropped by 53,000 TEU to 791,000 TEU as many of the larger vessels returned to service due to the implementation of extra slow steaming on a number of long-haul strings. Apart from Asia-Europe services, which are now largely slowed down to an average speed of 18 knots or less, a number of regional services has also joined the ESS bandwagon, including long-haul intra-Asia services operating from the Far East to the Indian subcontinent and Middle East as well as Far East-Australia services.

Despite some initial fears that shippers would object to longer transit times, ESS appears to have taken hold in the market with some shippers supporting the carriers’ initiatives to reduce CO₂ emissions. The non-operating owner (NOO) idle fleet also saw a drop, from 667,000 TEU recorded two weeks earlier to 647,000 TEU, with selective chartering for new service launches.

The idle fleet is expected to continue to fall until the middle of February when carriers make seasonal adjustments for the Lunar New Year holidays in the Far East.