Rickmers Maritime

The Container Shipping Market

Growth in the container shipping market has been relatively rapid in comparison to other major shipping sectors such as tankers and bulk carriers. Demand for shipping was strong in the last few years, with world container trade grew at an annual rate of 10% from 1999 to 2008. In 2009, due to weak global economic conditions, world container trade contracted by about 10% to 124 million TEU - the first yearly decline on record.

In 2010, the container shipping industry rebounded, fuelled by a recovery in global trade and the industry is expected to make further strides forward in 2011. Containership demand growth is estimated to be around 8%, outpacing containership capacity growth. While uncertainty continues to prevail in certain economies, the fundamentals point to a positive trend for the container shipping industry as a whole in 2011.

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The Charter Market

Historically, a significant share of the world's containership capacity has been owned by the liner companies operating container shipping services. In recent years, liner companies have chosen to charter a larger proportion of the capacity that they operate, given the significant costs associated with purchasing vessels. The share of total capacity operated by the top 10 container liner shipping companies that was chartered increased from approximately 15% in 1993 to 50% in 2010.

However, the huge containership deliveries within their fleet in the next few years may result in a slight slowdown in the chartering market as liner companies cut back their reliance on shipowners for capacity. Nevertheless, with the improving global outlook, signs of an upturn are becoming evident with the charter market expected to strengthen along with global trade.