Maersk Promises Not to Flood the Intermodal Network With New Super Ships

Maersk has recently released what are now the world’s largest container ships. These ships are 18,000TEU in capacity and are currently being put into use in the AE10 string between Asia and North Europe. The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller was the first of 20 Triple-E Class ships that was put into use in June of 2013. Currently, there are 5 of these Triple-E Class ships in service and all 20 of the ships are expected to be in service by 2015. The industry has been alarmed by the release of these ships because of the fact that there is already weak demand for east-west trades resulting from the recession that was experienced in Europe and North America. Maersk is watching the markets carefully to make sure that they do not roll out the remaining ships too quickly. The company expects demand to remain weak through 2016. Falling exports from China are also an issue that is affecting the trade and the trend is moving toward ordering smaller container shipments more frequently rather than large infrequent shipments. Rolling out the large capacity shipments could mean major damage to freight export raises and would flatten the demand.In the past year freight rates have fallen to their lowest level ever and is putting demand on shippers to raise their prices which Maersk is trying to avoid contributing to further. Maersk says that until all of the Triple-E class vessels have been rolled out, they will only load the existing ones to 14,200 TEUs which is the capacity of the Emma Class vessels which is the next smallest vessel in capacity. While Maersk is trying to control rate depressions they are not the only company rolling out larger ships. By the end of 2014, China Shipping Container Line is expected to release ships that are 18,400 TEUs. United Arab Shipping Co. will also release ships that are 18,000 TEUs by the end of 2014. Analysts estimate that the trend for larger and larger ships will continue as more companies roll out larger vessels. Analysts also expect that lower capacity ships will be pushed to ship out to other trades in favor of larger capacity ships. These larger capacity ships also have other advantages such as fuel efficiency which means that they will likely become the preferred ships.