Despite reports of increasing volumes on the trans Pacific trade lane, the idle container fleet is still increasing. By the end of November it was reported that already 11 container vessels with capacities above 13.500 teu were taken out of active service.
Supplementary capacity
Although 22 extra container ships with a capacity of 164.000 TEU were added to meet the booming Chinese exports to the United States, these figures are a substantial alarm as the idle fleet keeps growing.
End November 194 vessels were jobless or under repair according to Alphaliner. Their total capacity number was 600.172 TEU representing 2.7 pct of the global container fleet.
Cancelled departures
Due to the fact many sailings have been cancelled on the Far East to Europe trade, the idle fleet included eleven inactive container vessels with capacities between 13.500 and 18.000 TEU.
Many of them under the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line, shortly IRISL. Also the “Maersk Honam” which caught fire earlier this year in March while sailing in the Arabian Sea, is included in these figures as being under repair.
Iran Embargo
Two of the vessels being idle with a capacity of 14.500 TEU have been under management of Chinese Reach Shipping who were originally scheduled to operate under IRISL flag. Normally they would have operated between China and South East Asia. However due to the embargo of Iran by the US government, also Reach Shipping has now been put on the black list by the Trump administration.
As a consequence thereof, IRISL’s sister company HDASCO is unable to run their vessels efficiently facing huge empty slots. Thirteen vessels with a total capacity of 68.600 TEU of the Iranian carrier are waiting idle.
