Wall Street Journal reported that Hapag-Lloyd and Taiwanese carrier Evergreen Marine Corp have separately placed orders to Asian yards for the construction of more than a dozen mega-container ships that would have a combined value of about $2.2 billion.
This reflects the change in the shipping industry, as shipping companies order bigger vessels for transmitting goods. Yet, this could also mean that new orders could experience a decrease in light of bigger vessels presence.
Hapag-Lloyd, allegedly, has placed is orders on yards in Japan, South Korea and China for up to six ships that could each move 23,000 containers. Meanwhile, Evergreen is considering adding eight or nine ships in a deal that may be signed by the end of the summer.
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Wall Street Journal’s Costas Paris, noted that in total the combined shipbuilding deals could be worth in excess of US$2.2 billion. If they go through they would widen the gap between capacity and demand on container shipping’s vital critical Asia-to-Europe trade lanes.
Following big orders, in March 2019, COSCO presented the designs of a record-breaking 25,000 TEU vessel following approval from the country’s national shipbuilding company.
Hapag-Lloyd and Evergreen are both members of two of the three major shipping alliances which enable carriers to cut costs through ship and port slot sharing, a consequence of the lingering overcapacity crisis.
