SEOUL: A flurry of new vessel orders by MSC and HMM has sent the container ship orderbook to new highs as demolition rates remain at basement levels.
A further 28 container ships of more than 13,000 teu have boosted the post-2009 orderbook to a new high of 16.2m teu, 46.5% of the current fleet.
An order for 20 ships of 24,000 TEU by MSC at Hengli Heavy Industries in Dalian has taken the company’s orderbook for ships over 20,000 teu to 62 vessels.
South Korean operator HMM has also penned an eight-ship order, worth around $1.5bn, with Hyundai Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Samho for 13,000 teu LNG dual-fuel units.
The newbuildings will be deployed on HMM’s Far East-India-Mediterranean service, said the company.
In addition, HMM has acquired three 2,900 teu and a single 1,700 teu unit in a resale agreement that will see the vessels deployed in regional feeder operations.
“With this latest vessel acquisition, HMM’s total investments this year in fleet expansion, logistics infrastructure, and future technologies have reached approximately KRW6trn [more than $4.5bn],” said an HMM statement.
According to Linerlytica data, some 20 ships totalling 162,206 teu were delivered in the last 30 days, while one ship has been deleted in that period, the 2,800 GFS Pride, which sank in the Arabian Gulf after being attacked.
Vessel demolition rates have remained low since they peaked at around 100,000 teu in 2017, with post-Covid scrapping rates slumping in what became a feverish global container shipping market.
Data from ship broker Braemar indicates that the global fleet has expanded by more than 1m teu, with 1.12m teu delivered since January of this year and just 40,000 teu demolished. As of 1 October, cumulative new orders since January were 4.1m teu, excluding the latest MSC and HMM orders.
Carriers are now expecting a full return from the Cape of Good Hope by the end of the first quarter in 2027, releasing around another 1m teu of capacity onto the global market.
With Container Trades Statistics showing a 17.5% growth in volumes for August and overall volume growth for this year to date at 4.8%, growth in the fleet, which slowed in 2026, is expected to accelerate again in the next three years as the orderbook expands again.
Source: Seatrade Maritime News
