As we turn a new page to 2015, the growing size of the world fleet as part of the urgent pursuit of increasing efficiencies across the supply chain is one of those developments that look set to continue.
Looking at the new vessel order book, of the 454 container vessels scheduled for delivery from now until 2018, 101 are more than 12,000-TEU capacity, and they make up an astonishing 40 percent of the order book’s total capacity.
While the ultra-large container vessels help shipping lines reduce unit costs, they also require the port industry to invest in longer berths, deeper drafts and bigger cranes to translate on-water economies of scale to land. Meanwhile, bigger container ships operated by bigger carrier alliances are producing much greater peaks in container terminal activity.
Smaller vessels are redeployed onto routes not usually served by their larger cousins that will visit ports that have the capability and capacity to handle them. At DP World, we have invested more than $6 billion over the last five years, adding capacity and upgrading our infrastructure, and, consequently, we believe we are well placed to benefit from these trends.
Stronger growth coming from the east-west trade in the south rather than in the north means the industry also needs to invest now in regions such as Africa and South America to support the growth of those economies and their ability to handle the larger vessels that will cascade across trade lanes that previously catered only to much smaller vessels.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman, DP World