Shipowners may have cancelled 260 vessel orders
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Shipowners probably cancelled orders for 260 vessels carrying commodities and containers as the global recession choked demand and a credit crunch reduced funding, a consultant said.
Shipyards received new orders for 255 million gross tonnage in capacity in the past three years, and about 7 million tons in confirmed contracts may have been cancelled, said Roy Thomson, a regional marine manager in Asia for Lloyds Register, which certifies ships. Yards may have lost US$20 billion in revenue from the cancellations, based on Bloomberg calculations.
'We will see more cancellations,' Mr Thomson said in an interview yesterday at the Sea Asia 2009 conference. Lloyds Register has about 18 per cent of the global market share in the existing commercial fleet of about 8,400 vessels.
About a third of the cancellations may have been for bulk carriers, which transport ore, grains and other commodities, said Mr Thomson. The biggest bulk carriers at the peak of the shipping boom in the first quarter of last year may have cost as much as US$100 million each while large size tankers and container vessels cost as much as US$135 million, he said.
There are 3,424 commodity carriers presently on order at shipyards around the world, according to data from London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants. Those vessels will have a combined carrying capacity of about 294 million deadweight tons, or 70 per cent of the existing global fleet.
There were few orders for large vessels transporting ore and oil this year though yards are still building specialist vessels such as anchor handlers, tug boats and vessels for the oil and gas industry, Mr Thomson said. About 6 per cent of Lloyds Register's order book to certify vessels was cancelled in the past six months, Mr Thomson said.
Yards received new orders of 80 million gross tonnage in 2006, 130 million in 2007 and 45 million last year, he said.
Meanwhile at a panel discussion on the container trade at the same conference, ports operator PSA said a slump in container shipping trade has hit bottom though many ports are likely to face overcapacity and rising competition before global volumes rebound.
'I'm quietly confident that physical trade in terms of containers has actually bottomed . . . and the trend moving ahead is likely to be positive,' said Kuah Boon Wee, South-east Asia chief executive of PSA International. He warned however that some ports in the region, including those in Indonesia, southern China, the Straits of Malacca and North Asia, serving trans-Pacific routes, are in 'structural overcapacity'.
'Global trade will rebound, and I think it will probably rebound with more Asian characteristics - we are going to have to rely more on Asian-centric demand,' he said.
Shipyards received new orders for 255 million gross tonnage in capacity in the past three years, and about 7 million tons in confirmed contracts may have been cancelled, said Roy Thomson, a regional marine manager in Asia for Lloyds Register, which certifies ships. Yards may have lost US$20 billion in revenue from the cancellations, based on Bloomberg calculations.
'We will see more cancellations,' Mr Thomson said in an interview yesterday at the Sea Asia 2009 conference. Lloyds Register has about 18 per cent of the global market share in the existing commercial fleet of about 8,400 vessels.
About a third of the cancellations may have been for bulk carriers, which transport ore, grains and other commodities, said Mr Thomson. The biggest bulk carriers at the peak of the shipping boom in the first quarter of last year may have cost as much as US$100 million each while large size tankers and container vessels cost as much as US$135 million, he said.
There are 3,424 commodity carriers presently on order at shipyards around the world, according to data from London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants. Those vessels will have a combined carrying capacity of about 294 million deadweight tons, or 70 per cent of the existing global fleet.
There were few orders for large vessels transporting ore and oil this year though yards are still building specialist vessels such as anchor handlers, tug boats and vessels for the oil and gas industry, Mr Thomson said. About 6 per cent of Lloyds Register's order book to certify vessels was cancelled in the past six months, Mr Thomson said.
Yards received new orders of 80 million gross tonnage in 2006, 130 million in 2007 and 45 million last year, he said.
Meanwhile at a panel discussion on the container trade at the same conference, ports operator PSA said a slump in container shipping trade has hit bottom though many ports are likely to face overcapacity and rising competition before global volumes rebound.
'I'm quietly confident that physical trade in terms of containers has actually bottomed . . . and the trend moving ahead is likely to be positive,' said Kuah Boon Wee, South-east Asia chief executive of PSA International. He warned however that some ports in the region, including those in Indonesia, southern China, the Straits of Malacca and North Asia, serving trans-Pacific routes, are in 'structural overcapacity'.
'Global trade will rebound, and I think it will probably rebound with more Asian characteristics - we are going to have to rely more on Asian-centric demand,' he said.