Hong Kong: Ten years on from a landmark moment in containerization, Hong Kong’s OOCL yesterday took delivery of its fourth 13,208 teu containership, the NYK Hercules, from South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries. The ship will go on long term charter to alliance partner NYK of Japan.
It was ten years ago today that OOCL took delivery of the OOCL Shenzhen from the same yard. At 323 m in length and capable of carrying 8,063 teu the OOCL Shenzhen was the first so-called mega-boxship, or super post-panamax. It stacked containers 17 high, up from the post-panamax standard of 15. The ship was the largest containership in the world when it was delivered and heralded the start of a dramatic supersizing in the global containership fleet that now sees ships of up to 18,000 teu under construction.
Ten years on there are now more than 500 of these giant boxships afloat with more than 200 still to deliver.
Moreover, ships larger than 7,600 teu will grow 6-6.5 times compared to smaller ships which are set to grow 1.4-2 times over the coming 17 years, according to a new report by Lloyd’s Register.
This has led OOCL’s own ceo, Andy Tung, to suggest smaller ships will increasingly be elbowed out of main east-west trades.
Speaking at the Sea Asia conference in Singapore three weeks ago, Andy Tung said: "Smaller ships will find it hard to compete in long haul."
The new generation of ships built with slow speed requirements in mind “creates a gap”, Tung reckoned.
“I think the older ships perhaps will have an even harder time from the perspective of employment opportunities, because the gap is bigger and now you have the different design predicated on slower speed, which adds to the challenges for the smaller ships," he maintained. [30/04/13]
