Ships are arriving faster than cargo can fill them
Global shipping companies face overcapacity as new vessels arrive before demand catches up.
The story
Global container shipping faces potential overcapacity as new ships arrive faster than demand can absorb them, despite stable trade growth forecasts.
Source: wwd.com
Our reading
Shipping companies are ordering so many new ships that they might as well be building a fleet of floating warehouses for the future. The problem is, no one has yet figured out what to put in them. It’s like buying a mansion with 20 bedrooms and hoping the guests show up.
Meanwhile, the actual cargo is taking detours through Southeast Asia to avoid tariffs, which means the ships are running on empty routes and the logistics industry is now a high-stakes game of chess with more pieces than the board can hold.
even with all this extra capacity, the ships aren’t getting scrapped. They’re just sitting there, waiting for someone to figure out what to do with them—like a garage full of old bikes that no one rides anymore.
