Highly profitable charter and cargo transportation markets have prompted both non-operating shipowners and shipping lines to continue using even their oldest ships normally destined to be scrapped .
No container ships have been decommissioned in the first six months of 2022. There haven’t been any scrapping sales despite attractive shipbreaking prices.
This news was given by Alphiner in a recent report. It points out that 2022 is following the same trend as the previous year, which ended with just nineteen containerships, totaling 16,500 TEUs, being scrapped.
The consultancy firm predicts that boxship scrapping sales will remain particularly low in the second half of 2022.
As mentioned above, the lack of demolition sales can be attributed to the freight rates for shipping containerized cargo which have been particularly high over the last few months. Although they are gradually beginning to decline, although not in all routes, the profits are guaranteed to be sky-high.
This is why it is now cheaper for a shipping line to use all its available vessel capacity or, at best, to resell its older ships on the second-hand market rather than decommission them.
Translation by Giles Foster
