Container supply is still tight this year

According to the analysis of the world shipping Council, shippers and carriers can expect container supply to remain tight this year.

The world shipping Council said in an analysis of container supply that container shortages will force shippers and shippers to plan and forecast carefully to ensure that they have containers available when and where they need them. The report looks at global trends rather than individual trade routes.

The report points out that the economic recession has imbalanced supply and demand, and global container traffic fell for the first time in 2009. On average, the production of 3 million TEUs of new containers per year has almost stopped.

Chinese manufacturers resumed container production last year, but only 2.95 million TEUs were produced in 2009 and 2010. "As a result, at the beginning of 2011, the global container fleet was short of about 3 million TEUs compared to the level that the industry is used to," the report said

The world shipping Council said the world's container supply has now reached 186.5 million containers, or 285.35 million TEUs.

Manufacturers expect to produce about 3.5 million TEUs this year, accounting for 60-65% of the largest annual production capacity of 5.5-5.7 million TEUs. The factory can produce 4.5 million TEUs without adding staff or production lines, but it is not possible to do so without a firm order in hand.

Alphaliner, a French shipping consultancy, predicts that the ratio of container inventory to container capacity on board will drop from 2.03 at the end of 2010 to 1.99 at the end of this year, which is far lower than the 2.99 at the end of 2000 and is the lowest record.

In the past 10 years, the annual scrap rate of existing containers is about 5%. Nomura International (Hong Kong) said the scrap rate fell to 3.8% in 2010, will rise to 4.5% this year and rise to 5.3% in 2012.

Tight supply and high demand make operators and leasing companies extend the service time of containers. The WSC said the trend is likely to "affect some operators' decision to slow down a bit."

In order to reduce the cost of fuel, operators slow down the speed of ships, and slow sailing reduces the number of times each container participates in operation, which is also one of the reasons for the shortage of container supply.