News
Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK)’s Research Group released Friday the 2018 edition of its annual report on the world’s container transport and containership deployment. In 2016 and 2017, growth in global container cargo traffic was greater than that in tonnage made via newbuilding construction for two consecutive years. In 2018, however, the group envisaged that due to a sluggish expansion in the global economy, containerized shipments will only increase 4-5% year on year. Excluding impacts of demolitions and delivery delays, meanwhile, tonnage is projected to swell approximately 6%, exceeding a rise in container traffic for the first time in three years. NYK anticipated that container movement will inflate 4-5% each in 2019-2020. As the demolition of aged ships will be advanced to comply with the enhanced regulations on SOx emissions, gains in tonnage will fall to the 3% range in 2019-2020, smaller than increases in container traffic for two years running.
As of the end of August 2018, a total of 5,232 containerships were in operation, providing a combined hauling capacity of 21,719,000 TEUs, which rose 6.5% from a year earlier. In 2018, it is anticipated that 226 newbuildings will be completed, adding 1,409,138 TEUs of space. Container freighters with capacities of 8,000-14,000 TEUs will account for 29, producing 337,738 TEUs. On the Asia/South America trade, in particular, an increase in neo-Panamas vessels will increase tonnage by 31%. Their average capacity will be 8,426 TEUs.
In 2017, the volume of containerized shipments traded worldwide hiked 6.6% year on year to 208 million TEUs in total. Thanks to an improvement in the European economy and favorable business conditions in North America, containers increased on all routes. Shipments from Asia to Europe climbed 5.5% to 15,474,000 TEUs, whole those from Europe to Asia augmented 5.6% to 7,599,000 TEUs. In January-September 2018, in contrast, containers from Asia to Europe slowed down, only increasing 1.7%. Meanwhile, those from Asia to the U.S. went up 6.2% to 16.54 million TEUs in 2017(?), establishing a new record for the fourth consecutive year. In January-October 2018, they improved 5.4%, hitting a record high again if they remain as brisk.
