THE idle containership fleet rose to 246 units, totalling 595,000 TEU at the beginning of 2012 compared to 322,000 TEU being idled 12 months ago due to additional capacity withdrawals for the winter season.
Demands in both the US and Europe were softer than expected in 2011. This leads to a further reduction of active cellular fleet to 14.81 million TEU at the outset of 2012 compared to 14.97 million TEU in August last year, according to Alphaliner.
As a result, the year-on-year net growth in the active cellular fleet has hit its lowest point since February 2010, standing at 6.2 per cent at present.