News / No box trade supply-demand balance until end 2019, says Alphaliner

© Joe Myerscough

Recent forecasts from ocean carriers that a supply-demand equilibrium will be reached next year are “optimistic”, says Alphaliner.

It says newbuild deliveries with 1.6m teu of cellular capacity will aggravate a supply overhang that is expected to be carried over from the fourth quarter of this year.

Alphaliner’s current idle containership survey records a two-year low of 147 vessels, with a capacity of 275,897 teu, in lay-up, but it warned that the number would  soar in the final three months of the year, with idle ...