According to Alphaliner, the Paris based container shipping consultancy, the growth in the world container ship fleet will slow this year to the lowest rate this decade as ocean carriers defer deliveries of new vessels and boost scrapping of older tonnage to record levels.

The global cellular ship capacity is expected to increase to 13.26 million TEU at the end of the year from 12.36 million TEUs at the end of 2008, instead of the 14.02 million TEUs projected in January.

The growth rate for 2009, taking in to account delivery deferrals, slippage, and potential scrapping for the rest of the year, will be around 7.3% against the 13.4% originally forecast.

Alphaliner said that the revised growth rate is the lowest this decade. The fleet grew by 13.2% in 2008, a record 16.1% in 2006 and a low of 8.9% in 2003. The lower growth rate in 2009 is due to the significant slippage of new vessel deliveries as well as record scrapping rates.

Deliveries of containerships to the end of August reached 190 vessels with a combined capacity of 784,000 TEUs, while 145 ships of 275,000 TEUs have been scrapped.

(Sourced from Journal of Commerce)