Global shipping giants reportedly are reluctant to place orders and are postponing the delivery of completed container ships because vessels that were chartered by the nation’s once-largest shipping line have been released into the market at lower prices.
According to industry sources on Sunday, the world’s largest shipping line, Maersk Line, placed a $1.1 billion order in July 2015 with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) to build nine 14,000-TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) container vessels. Delivery was planned for this year, but the Danish shipping line decided to receive some of the vessels next year.
It is more economical for shipping lines to charter container ships than place orders with shipyards because of a supply surplus in the global shipbuilding market.