Global containership inactivity continued its upward trend, but at a somewhat slower pace, at the end of February. This was due to an increase in the number of medium to large size ships in dry dock. This more than made up for a slight drop in the fleet of commercially inactive ships.
Alphaliner counted 337 ships as inactive in its latest survey on February 27. In capacity terms, this was equal to 1,679,935 teu, or an increase of 63,366 teu. This is equivalent to 6.4% of the total cellular fleet, compared to 6.2% two weeks ago.
In terms of personnel, in the last fortnight the number of inactive ships has been reduced by 29 units.
Changes in vessel inactivity between vessel sizes were mixed, with more than 40 vessels under 5,100 TEU returning to active service in the period, while 12 vessels over 5,100 TEU were recently registered as inactive. .
As mentioned, the number of ships in dry dock either for maintenance, repair or conversion increased significantly by 109,021 TEU over the last fortnight, reaching a total capacity of 875,173 TEU. This is equivalent to 52% of the total inactive fleet.
In contrast, the commercially inactive ships segment experienced a slight drop of 15 ships and 45,655 TEUs compared to the previous survey. This segment totaled 147 ships for 804,762 TEU as of February 27.
Carrier-controlled idle ships, as a subset of commercially idle tonnage, were more or less flat, increasing by a single ship and just 494 TEU in capacity to reach a total of 118 ships of 734,275 TEU.
For their part, the vessels controlled by their non-operational owners decreased by 16 vessels of 46,149 teu, to stand at 29 units and 70,487 teu.
Source: Alphaliner
