Post-panamax vessels that are too large to navigate the Panama Canal are said to be worth $73.2 million, below a peak of $106 million on April 13.
A glut of ships, high fuel prices and weakening U.S. and European economies are curbing freight rates as charter costs at 19-month lows depress vessel earnings. Still, global demand for consumer goods shipped in containers will gain 8.3 percent in 2011 as rising imports to Latin America and other developing economies offset slowing demand in the U.S. and Europe, according to Clarkson Research Services Ltd., a unit of the world’s largest shipbroker.