Maritime Trade and Transport - HWWI

The second method, using larger ships at the same frequency, offers the advantage of appreciable
cost savings, especially for longer distances. More efficient fuel consumption, less
labor, and a lower capital tie-up make it possible to reduce the costs in reverse ratio to the size
of the ships. In comparison with two ships half its size, an 8,000 TEU container ship saves 130
liters of bunker oil per container on the Europe-Asia route. 16
The structure of the international container fleet has fundamentally changed along with
market growth. Increasingly larger container ships are being put into operation at progressively
shorter time intervals. During the past 125 years, the fleet has grown by 180%, the slot capacity
by 400%. The average size of an all-container ship has nearly doubled. Demand for additional
loading space continues. More than half of the capacities that are ordered is for ships that can
transport more than 5,000 containers. A year ago, 43 container ships in the over 9,000 TEU
class were in the order books. This year, the “Emma Maersk” exceeded the 10,000 TEU mark.
With this exception, however, taking into account full capacity utilization of the shipyards and
supply shortages for large marine engines, regular use of 13,000 TEU ship sizes is only expected
in 2010. 17
Technically speaking, there are hardly any limits to size. A 18,000 TEU vessel is forecasted
for 2015. Ships of this size will only travel on two or three main routes. In comparison to current
costs on the Asia-Europe route, for example, savings of as much as 16% are expected. Even
21,000 TEU ships are already on the drawing board. In addition to restricted medium-term port
and handling capacities, increases in size are limited by other economic factors: 18
1. Propulsion units: They are the greatest problem for future 12,000-15.000 TEU ships. Greater
engine power is necessary for speed, or else integration into the existing liner service would
be endangered. In the screw propeller, there are limits to weight and material. An alternative
would be the installation of two propulsion units. Since the engine and the propeller screw
are the most expensive components of a container ship, however, this would increase the
capital outlays considerably.
2. Port charges: Greater ship sizes mean higher costs for loading and unloading in the port. Besides,
the time lost due to longer docking times must be compensated by greater ship speed,
with the associated cost.
3. Operating risk: The value of the goods transported by a 15,000 TEU container ship can surpass
the billion-dollar mark. A breakdown could have serious financial consequences, which
would be expensive to insure. The capacity utilization risk of a 10,000 TEU ship is obviously
greater than that of a 5,000 TEU ship.
4. Waterways: For physical reasons, increases in capacity go hand in hand with increases in
width. This makes waterways into limiting factors. On the Europe-Asia route, the Suez
Canal limits capacity to about 15,000 TEU. The Strait of Malakka between Indonesia and
Malaysia permits a maximum ship capacity of 18,000 TEU on the North America-Asia route.
16 See Reise (2004); Hansa International Maritime Journal (2002b).
17 See Clarkson Research Services (2006), Deutsche Bank Research (2006a).
18 See Hansa International Maritime Journal (2004); Germanischer Lloyd (2004).
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