Alphaliner Sees Inactive Container Fleet Drop to 3.4% of Capacity

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday September 9, 2020

The share of the container fleet has dropped further, slipping to just 3.4% of total capacity, according to shipping intelligence service Alphaliner.

Just 198 ships totalling 799,643 TEU were left inactive as of August 31, Alphaliner said in its weekly newsletter Wednesday, down by 169,357 TEU from the middle of the month.

"Carriers nevertheless remain cautious about carefully balancing demand and capacity; all major alliances have already announced plans to implement blank sailings in the Asia-Europe and Asia-North America trades for China's upcoming Golden Week holiday in October," the company said.

"As Chinese exporters will rush to ship out more cargoes before the holiday, a demand boost is expected during September, especially for the two big East-West trades."

Container lines are the largest buyers of bunker fuel in the shipping industry.

Just 25 boxships totalling 237,648 TEU of capacity were left inactive while undergoing a scrubber retrofit outside of routine maintenance as of the end of August, the company said.