WSJ via Hellenic Shipping News, April 21:
The megaships that were supposed to carry container lines into a new
era of efficiency-driven profitability have become a financial albatross
during the coronavirus pandemic.
Ocean carriers have canceled hundreds of services, parked ships and
sent vessels on longer voyages to eat up capacity and preserve their
finances amid diving trade volumes. But the ultra-large ships that have
come to dominate container fleets in recent years are sailing half empty
as a downturn in demand envelops Western economies under lockdowns.
Shipping-industry experts say the economic disruption from the
pandemic restrictions has laid bare a key weakness in the vessels that
can carry some 20,000 boxes each and are as long as the Empire State
Building is tall.
The ships provide big operating-cost savings on major trade lanes in
periods of high demand, but critics say they also box in ship owners,
giving them little flexibility to shift vessels around in response to
changing markets.
“A very large boxship is like the A380 superjumbo,” said Lars Jensen,
chief executive of Copenhagen-based SeaIntelligence Consulting,
comparing them to the Airbus SE double-decker jets that failed to gain
traction in aviation markets. “It only works in specific corridors,
otherwise it’s too big.”
Container ships move the vast majority of manufactured products, and
operators touted the behemoths as a tool that would boost global trade.
Ship operators said they allow liners to spread operating expenses such
as fuel and crew salaries across more shipments, allowing them to offer
lower freight rates to customers and effectively decrease the cost of
transportation that is a backbone of global trade.
As the coronavirus pandemic took hold and demand collapsed,
ultra-large container vessels have been sailing half full or sitting in
anchor by the dozens, waiting for the world to open up again.
Liner operators have so far canceled more than 380 sailings since
February across the world’s busiest trade routes due to the coronavirus
shutdowns, and shipping analysts expect more cancellations as rising
unemployment and weakening manufacturing and retail markets severely
curtail demand.
Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the world’s biggest container line
by capacity, according to maritime data group Alphaliner, in 2013
introduced the new generation of ultra-large ships with capacity for
20,000 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, a standard measure of
container capacity. They were double the size of the largest ships the
industry operated just 10 years earlier. That jump-started a competition
among carriers to get bigger ships, and the ships are now a mainstay on
the world’s busiest trade lanes between Asia and Europe....
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