• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books
• Gallery

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

In the first half of 2009, a number of container ships with a total capacity of 184,700 TEUs were scrapped, with 94 fully cellular ships assigned for scrapping, says Shipping Gazette quoting Paris-based AXS-Alphaliner. Of this, the share of carrier-owned capacity was 107,200 TEUs, the balance being the capacity of non-operating owners. The scrapping pace is expected to slow down a little in the third quarter, considered the peak shipping season, only to pick up again in the later part of the year and the forecast is that the scrapping will exceed 300,000 TEUs by the end of the year, reaching a level that will be 10 times higher than the historical average. The report adds that six of the container ships earmarked for scrapping are in the capacity range of 4,000-4500 TEUs. Also, MOL, as a single company, placed largest capacity for scrapping – eight vessels totalling 24,000 TEUs so far this year. MSC, the world’s second largest container operator, too, is believed to have consigned 10 ships totalling 16,000 TEUs to the breaking yards.

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line