Shippers May Face Higher Rates in 2010 as Space Gets Tight

(Logistics Management)

The active capacity of the world’s leading ocean cargo carriers dropped by 2.4% over the last 12 months.

According to a new report issued ASX-Alphaliner, capacity management has become the key to restoring the industry to profitability in 2010. “Although the total operated fleet of the top 20 carriers increased by 1.6% since 2009, the effective capacity dropped due to an increase in the idle fleet,” said analysts.

Analysts added that the combined capacity of the “Top 20” carriers reached 10.81 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEU) on 1 January 2010 compared to 10.63 million TEU in 2009. The idled capacity of these carriers currently stands at 743,000 TEU, representing 6.9% of the carriers’ operated fleet. The idle capacity for these carriers was 328,000 TEU or 3.1% of their fleet on 1 January 2009. Read more here.