600 ships and counting! The global container shipping market is engulfed in a frenzied battle for vessels.

New vessel orders exceeded 300, a year-on-year surge of nearly 8 times; second-hand vessel transactions reached 277, a year-on-year doubling. In the first half of the year, both new and second-hand container ship orders and transaction prices soared. Faced with the dilemma of "no ship available" in the container shipping market, shipping companies launched a frantic scramble for vessels.

New ship orders approximately 300 vessels, quantity surged 8 times year-on-year.

According to VesselsValue's latest statistics, new container ship orders in the first half of the year reached 286 vessels, approximately 2.5 million TEU, with a total value of up to US$21.52 billion, more than double the record level of 99 vessels and US$9.2 billion in 2011. This represents a substantial increase of 790% compared to the same period last year, while container ship orders in 2020 were only 120 vessels worth US$8.8 billion, and in 2019, 106 vessels worth US$6.8 billion.

VesselsValue data shows that most container ship orders this year are concentrated in the Neo-Panamax vessel segment, totaling 112 vessels valued at US$13 billion, whereas 2020 orders were only 32 vessels valued at US$1.97 billion.

Categorized by shipowner, Seaspan, the world's largest independent container ship owner, had the highest order volume, totaling 40 vessels, 603,000 TEU, valued at US$3.95 billion; Evergreen Marine ranked second with 22 vessels and US$2.82 billion in orders; CMA CGM, Wan Hai Lines, and HMM (formerly Hyundai Merchant Marine) ranked 3rd to 5th respectively.

Alphaliner's statistics are even higher: in the first half of the year, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean shipyards received orders for over 300 container ships, totaling 2.88 million TEU, accounting for 11.8% of the existing total capacity of 24.5 million TEU.

Driven by the frantic wave of orders, the container ship orderbook also surged. As of June 30th, the orderbook has increased from a low of 2.29 million TEU in the same period last year to 4.94 million TEU. The proportion of the orderbook to the existing fleet also increased from 9.4% to 19.9% compared to the same period last year, with the 11,000-25,000 TEU segment having an even higher proportion of 50% of the existing fleet.

Meanwhile, newbuild container ship prices have risen by 15% so far this year.

New container ship orders in the second half of the year are also expected to be substantial. On July 6th, TS Lines ordered 4 units of 7,000 TEU container ships from Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding. On the same day, Seaspan also announced the signing of a construction contract with a major shipyard for 10 LNG-powered 7,000 TEU container ships, which will be chartered to ZIM Integrated Shipping Services. On July 15th, COSCO Shipping Group disclosed orders for 6 units of 14,092 TEU container ships and 4 units of 16,180 TEU container ships from Yangzhou COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry.

Furthermore, it is widely believed that Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation will consider ordering the first batch of the world's largest 24,000 TEU ultra-large container ships. Maersk is reportedly in discussions with Hyundai Heavy Industries Group for the construction of at least 6, and up to 12, 15,000 TEU methanol-fueled container ships. Maersk had already ordered its first 2,100 TEU methanol-fueled dual-fuel feeder container ship from Hyundai Mipo Dockyard on July 1st.

Alphaliner stated that assuming these rumored orders are successfully realized and additional orders from other shipowners increase, the container ship orderbook in the second half of this year may further increase by approximately 1 million TEU, reaching a level of 6 million TEU. By the end of this year, the proportion of the container ship orderbook to the existing fleet will further expand to about 24%.

Second-hand vessel transactions reached 277, ship prices surged 4-fold.

Stimulated by the booming container shipping market, the second-hand vessel market saw both volume and price increases. In the first half of the year, container ship transactions more than doubled in volume, and ship prices quadrupled compared to last year.
 

The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), citing VesselsValue data, stated that in the first half of this year, the total volume of second-hand container ship transactions was 277 vessels, an increase of 103.7% compared to 136 vessels in the same period last year. Although the number of vessels more than doubled, the total capacity of the 227 container ships that changed hands in the first half of this year was 922,203 TEU, with a capacity increase of only 40.1%. The average vessel size was 3,403 TEU, lower than the level in the same period last year.