Ships

The number of new containerships ordered in the first 9 months of 2025 has reached 385 units for 3.36m teu. Full year numbers could match the record of 4.67m teu ordered in 2024 and 4.74m teu ordered in 2021 if the current pace of new ship contracting continues. The orderbook reached 32.2% of the operating fleet, and planned deliveries will hit 2.9m teu in 2027 and 3.8m teu in 2028. The new deliveries will far exceed the projected scrapping of older vessels in the coming 3 years. The widebeam

Only 12 containerships with a total capacity of 8,465 teu have been scrapped so far this year, with a further 6 ships lost at sea or converted to other usage. However, there are numerous candidates for removal from service, which in our view are older vessels facing substantial capital expenditure. Currently, 52 ships totaling 98,882 TEU are over 25 years old and due for special survey. Notwithstanding the low level of vessel deletions recorded so far this year, a larger challenge lies ahead a

The containership orderbook has reached a record high of 10.4m TEU, following the flurry of new ship orders placed in the last 12 months, with the orderbook ratio rising to 31.7% of the fleet - its highest levels since 2010. The last time the orderbook ratio exceeded this level in 2004-2009, it ended in a decade-long supply overhang that took 10 years to clear. There is still over 1m TEU of pending ship orders that are due to be added before the end of this year.

Global container throughput growth have been revised upwards and is expected to grow by 2.6% in 2025, in line with the IMF’s revised global GDP growth outlook released last week due to cargo front loading during the first half of this year, lower effective US tariff rates, improved financial market and government fiscal stimulus by several key countries. Despite the revision, the US tariffs have already spurred higher inflation and slower job growth which will lead to slower growth in the 2nd h

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on 30 July 2025 the addition of 22 containerships to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list for their alleged links to Iranian interests. A total of 143 ships including 71 crude oil tankers, 42 product tankers and 5 LPG tankers were included in the list that are alleged to be part of the shipping assets controlled by Hossein Shamkhani that have been used to transport oil and petroleum products from Iran

271 new containerships for 2.6m TEU were ordered in the first 7 months of this year, not including undeclared options that would raise the final tally to over 300 ships as carriers’ appetite for new tonnage remains unabated. The wave of new orders is not about to end soon, with attention shifting to feeder sizes. The orderbook for ships of below 4,000 teu currently stands at just 6.8% of the current fleet, compared to 16.2% for ships of 4,000 to 10,000 teu, and 51.7% for ships of over 10,000 teu

The 8,204 teu MSC BILBAO and MSC VALENCIA that have been detained at Malta since 2022 are due to be released after both ships were transferred out of Russian ownership. The 2 ships are owned by interests linked to the GTLK-Joint Stock Company State Transportation Leasing Company that have been placed under the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Russia-related sanctions since 2022. Both ships were transferred to new owner TSC on 7 July 2025 and have been renamed TSC DORADO and

The 2,407 teu HORIZON ENTERPRISE has been scrapped in Alang under the scrap name ENTERPRISE on 10 July 2025, marking the first US built containership to be scrapped outside of the US since 2016. The HORIZON ENTERPRISE was delivered as the AUSTRAL PURITAN in July 1980 as the second unit of 2 ships of the C8-S-85d class built at Bethlehem's Sparrows Point shipyard for Farrell Lines. The first ship of the series, the AUSTRAL PIONEER was scrapped earlier as the HORIZON PACIFIC in Brownsville, Texas

The USTR announced on 17 April the revised Section 301 actions on China’s dominance In the shipbuilding sector, backing down from all of its initial proposals. Although port fees on Chinese operated and Chinese-built ships are retained, carriers will be able to circumvent the fees by swapping out all of the affected ships in the next 180 days as the fee will no longer apply on the operators’ fleet composition or prospective orders but only on ships calling at US ports on a per voyage basis (cha

US efforts to revive its shipbuilding industry will achieve little traction despite the USTR’s proposal to impose a levy on Chinese built ships as well as remissions for operators using US built ships. There are currently only 63 US-flagged containerships, accounting for just 0.9% of the global fleet of 6,874 ships currently. Only 25 of the US flagged ships were built in the US primarily to serve the Jones Act trades, while the rest of the 38 ships were built outside of the US. Maersk, CMA CGM