The inactive containership fleet showed a sharp tick upwards at the start of October as the impact of China’s Golden Week on October 1—7 took full effect.
As was the case last year, the Chinese holiday saw a marked drop in shipping activity, with the percentage of inactive vessels surging to coincide with the break.
The combination of the Chinese holiday, and the gradual increase in the number of idle ships seen since February this year, has pushed inactive tonnage as a percentage of the overall fleet to its highest level in two years.
As of 10 October, the global fleet of inactive vessels reached 4.1% of the total containership fleet, at 275 vessels of 1.06 M teu. This compares to 249 inactive vessels of 0.96 M teu two weeks earlier, or 3.7% of the total fleet.
Ships in drydock for repairs and maintenance dropped by 7 ships and 22,495 teu over the past fortnight to reach 170 ships of 663,462 teu. This accounted for 63% of all inactive capacity.
By contrast, the percentage of commercially idle ships rose from 28% to 37% of the total inactive fleet, after a sharp increase in inactive carrier tonnage.
Commercially idle carrier-controlled tonnage rose by 25 ships and 112,161 teu to a total of 76 ships and 322,394 teu.
Meanwhile, commercially idle non operating owner-controlled capacity increased by 8 vessels and 21,877 teu to a total of 29 ships of 72,846 teu.
The proportion of inactive tonnage still remains very low historically, but has shown consecutive monthly growth since August.
Source: Alphaliner
