Neptune Orient Lines Ltd (NOL), owner of Southeast Asia’s largest container line, plans to boost capacity about 7% this year as a rebounding global economy revives trade and freight rates.
The company will charter as many as 10 vessels this year, each with a capacity of as much as 6,000 standard 20-ft equivalent boxes, according to a Business Week online report.
Quoting NOL's chief Executive Officer Ron Widdows, the report says the company plans to return its last 10 idled ships to service by about June.
Global carriers have been keeping ships idle to reduce supply in the market in a bid to hold up freight rates. The prognosis for global carriers is less bleak as global trade recovers from the slump seen last year.
APL Ltd., the company’s container-shipping unit, posted the biggest monthly traffic jump in at least six years in January as US and European retailers restocked amid easing job concerns. Industrywide volumes on transpacific routes will likely rise as much as 5% this year, with Asia-Europe demand growing even faster, the report adds.
Container lines likely lost about USD$20 billion in 2009 because of slumping trade, overcapacity and price wars, the report says, citing Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd.
Widdows was also quoted as saying shipping lines may succeed in securing higher transpacific rates in annual contracts due to start around May.
APL, A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, owner of the world’s biggest container line, and 13 other lines are seeking to raise rates by $800 per forty-foot container on US west coast routes in the new agreements, the report says.