Are Megaships Game Changers?
Bragging rights for the world’s largest container ship have changed hands four times in as many months and keep on shifting again, says a report in the Bloomberg.
The megaships have come to dominate container shipping with astonishing rapidity over the past decade. The shift to larger ships was pushed along by the global financial crisis and rising fuel costs.
Due to weak freight rates shipping lines tend to send as many goods as possible in a single voyage.
Samsung Heavy Industries Co., the world’s third-biggest shipbuilder, is constructing four vessels capable of carrying 20,100 20-foot containers for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. of Japan.
Another two ships of the same size will be built by Japan’s Imabari Shipbuilding Co. Samsung Heavy expects more 20,000-container vessels will be ordered in the first half of this year because of the economies of scale they offer.
Whether ship sizes continue to grow depends on builders finding ways to make even larger vessels that will be structurally sound amid the punishment of rough seas, says the report.
Ports will need ever-deeper shipping lanes and terminal operators will require cranes capable of stretching all the way across the wider decks.
According to Drewry Maritime Equity Research a ship of that size can cut costs by about 30 percent per trip compared to a 13,000-box ship, based on a bunker fuel price of $600 a ton.
Even at current fuel prices -- $393.12 a ton as of Thursday in Singapore -- a larger vessel is still about 15 percent cheaper per voyage, Drewry said.
A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S started the recent trend toward bigger vessels in 2011 when it ordered 20 “Triple-E” ships from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. But someone will soon displace Mitsui O.S.K. as the largest ship-owner, says market observers
