Demand for container ships boosts outlook for Asian shiyards

The container ships on order rose by 23 to 201 last week, the biggest weekly gain in two years, boosting the outlook for Asian shipyards.

Some of the world’s largest container-shipping lines are ordering new vessels to address surging demand for ocean-cargo services.

Such ships globally transport about 80 percent of goods.

ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., an Israeli company that went public in late January, and Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corp. have announced recent purchases or chartering deals.

The 2016 bankruptcy of South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping disrupted supply chains for weeks and made it tougher to secure longer-term financing to purchase ships.

But the pandemic led to a surge in online demand for goods that allowed the carriers to charge rates up to four times higher for freight across the Pacific than a year ago.

Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the world's number one container shipping company, predicted last week that global container demand will increase 3 to 5 percent this year.

Orders for new container ships have increased by 115 since early October, equivalent to a new container capacity of over 1.1 million 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs. It raised the total capacity order to about 2.7 million TEUs.

Shipping lines have ordered 21 vessels from South Korean shipyards since the start of the year. Some will be powered by liquefied natural gas in compliance with new international pollution standards.

Chinese shipyards have also benefitted.