Short Comment SSMR (1/2) 2008: World Merchant Fleet

As of January 1st, 2008, the total world merchant fleet comprised 44,553 ships with 1.08 billion dwt equal to 1.3 mill TEU. Compared with last year’s figures the tonnage increased again by 6.9 per cent and the TEU-capacity by 11.4 per cent.
In the period 2004-2008, the average tonnage growth of the total world merchant fleet reached 6.5 per cent per year, representing in absolute terms a remarkable increase of 239 mill dwt.
While the annual tonnage growth in the last years doubled compared to figures in the 1990s, the scrapping for old merchant vessels has fallen to a very low level due to the good market conditions (compare Fig. 1 and 2).
In 2007, 2,193 newbuildings with a combined tonnage of 82.5 mill dwt entered the merchant fleet, the highest level ever in terms of dwt. In the same period, only 462 vessels with a tonnage of 7.2 mill dwt were reported to be broken-up. Scrapping activities were low for all market segments.
2007 was again a record year for the newbuilding market. In total, LR-Fairplay recorded 5,044 orders for merchant ships with a combined tonnage of 293 mill dwt. Ships on order reached a new record with 8,887 ships and 520 mill dwt. The share of the ordered tonnage in relation to the current tonnage is about 48 per cent. It is worth mentioning that the ordered tonnage has doubled within the last three years.
Quelle: Institut für Seeverkehrswirtschaft und Logistik