Diana scraps youngest ship - 10-year-old - 4,923-TEUer on record
DIANA Containership's 4,923-TEU YM Los Angeles has set a new containership record for being the first panamax delivered less than 10 years ago to be scrapped.
This underscores the urgency for shipping companies to scrap capacity to restore a supply and demand balance to the market that continues to be plagued by cripplingly low freight rates and sagging demand.
The YM Los Angeles was delivered from Imabari's Koyo Dockyard in December 2006, and is now destined to be recycled.
Panamax boxships have been sent en masse for scrapping this year as rates for this ship size have particularly been hit hard.
A report by BIMCO at the end of June highlighted how the panamax segment had seen 150,863 TEU of scrapping in the first half of the year, the same volume as in the previous 18 months through to end December 2015, reported Singapore's Splash 24/7.
Time charter rates for the panamax segment fell from a monthly average of US$15,800 per day in March 2015 to a monthly average of $5,755 per day in July 2016, a drop of 63.5 per cent.
"The expansion of the Panama Canal backs up the shift away from the segment of panamax ships which have a maximum beam of 32 metres, putting them in line for demolition," BIMCO chief analyst Peter Sand pointed out in the report.
This vessel scrapping also sets another record, according to analysis from BIMCO. By adding the demolition of YM Los Angeles, year-to-date demolition for the container shipping sector has now reached 446,000 TEU, exceeding the annual total of 444,000 TEU in 2013 with two months to go.
DIANA Containership's 4,923-TEU YM Los Angeles has set a new containership record for being the first panamax delivered less than 10 years ago to be scrapped.
This underscores the urgency for shipping companies to scrap capacity to restore a supply and demand balance to the market that continues to be plagued by cripplingly low freight rates and sagging demand.
The YM Los Angeles was delivered from Imabari's Koyo Dockyard in December 2006, and is now destined to be recycled.
Panamax boxships have been sent en masse for scrapping this year as rates for this ship size have particularly been hit hard.
A report by BIMCO at the end of June highlighted how the panamax segment had seen 150,863 TEU of scrapping in the first half of the year, the same volume as in the previous 18 months through to end December 2015, reported Singapore's Splash 24/7.
Time charter rates for the panamax segment fell from a monthly average of US$15,800 per day in March 2015 to a monthly average of $5,755 per day in July 2016, a drop of 63.5 per cent.
"The expansion of the Panama Canal backs up the shift away from the segment of panamax ships which have a maximum beam of 32 metres, putting them in line for demolition," BIMCO chief analyst Peter Sand pointed out in the report.
This vessel scrapping also sets another record, according to analysis from BIMCO. By adding the demolition of YM Los Angeles, year-to-date demolition for the container shipping sector has now reached 446,000 TEU, exceeding the annual total of 444,000 TEU in 2013 with two months to go.
