Review of Maritime Transport 2010 - Unctad

34
Container production and leasing
Towards the end of 2009, the world container fleet
stood at 27.1 million TEU, a decline of 5.5 per cent
compared to the previous year. Lessors whose main
business is the leasing of containers to liner shipping
companies owned 37.6 per cent of the total; the
remainder of the container fleet was owned by the
carriers themselves. The share of the lessors has
slowly declined in recent years; in 2005 it still stood at
43.8 per cent (fig. 2.3).
Unlike the building of container ships, the construction
of containers adjusts relatively quickly to changes
in demand. Container production in 2009 sank to
350,000 TEU, due to the low demand for new boxes,
which was down from a peak of 4,250,000 TEU in
2007. The weakening of global demand that began
in the last quarter of 2008 further worsened in the first
three quarters of 2009, before a slight improvement
in the last quarter as some new orders for new boxes
were received from leasing companies. Container
producers, who are mostly based in China, had to
shut down numerous factories, and limit the operation
of the remaining factories to one shift, corresponding
to 33 per cent of capacity.
The annual average price of newly produced twentyfoot
containers fell to $2,025 in 2009. As the cost of
Figure 2.3. World Container fleet (end-of-year figures, thousands of TEU)
30 000
25 000
20 000
15 000
10 000
5 000
0
Review of MaRitiMe tRanspoRt 2010
new material also fell, the last quarter of 2009 saw the
new box price fall to $1,900 (fig. 2.4). The drastic cut
in production and the accompanying drop in prices
were also due to producers aiming to strike a balance
between the need to lower the inventory of boxes
built using the higher-cost materials of 2008 and
the objective of building new boxes made from the
relatively cheaper materials being used in 2009.
2. age distribution of the world merchant
fleet
The average age of the world fleet decreased during
2009 as new tonnage was delivered and more
ships were demolished during the economic crisis.
In particular, the average age per deadweight ton
decreased (as compared to the average age per
ship), as the newly delivered ships tend to be larger
than most of those in the existing fleet; vessels built
during the last four years are, on average, six times
larger than those built before 1990.
Container ships are the youngest vessel type, with an
average age (per ship) of 10.6 years, followed by bulk
carriers (16.6 years), oil tankers (17.0 years), general
cargo ships (24.6 years) and other types (25.3 years)
(table 2.5).
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Lessors 9 380 9 850 10 680 11 525 10 200
Sea carriers 12 035 13 485 15 555 17 160 16 900
Source: Compiled by the UNCTAD secretariat, on the basis of data from Containerization International Magazine, August 2008 and
May 2010.