Commercially-idle tonnage as a proportion of the total cellular container fleet reached an all-time low in the first ten months of the year, as the Red Sea crisis forced carriers to call on every available ship to service voyage diversions and meet soaring demand.
According to Alphaliner data, on average 0.7% of the global cellular container fleet was commercially idle in January to October. This is less than during the equivalent 10-month period in both 2021 and 2022 when COVID was at its peak (average 0.9% each year).
The figure is even more striking given the huge growth in the cellular fleet over the past four years, which has increased from 23.7 Mteu in October 2020 to 30.6 Mteu today, a rise of nearly 30%.
The average figure for the first ten months of the year implies an overwhelming 99.3% of the cellular fleet is either commercially employed or otherwise out of service for non-commercial reasons such as repair, maintenance or conversion.
Source: Alphaliner
