RS Platou Economic Research AS said in a monthly report that global shipbuilding capacity is significantly lower than it was at its peak five years ago.
Though a dramatic increase in building capacity among global shipyards has been observed over the last decade, deliveries were down by roughly 10% last year, RS Platou reported.
“Under the prevailing market conditions, where shipbuilders are forced to accept new contracts below cost levels, we have seen a significant share of the building capacity withdrawn or removed,” the report stated. “We have roughly estimated that about one third of the potential building capacity seen during the peak in 2008 has been withdrawn from the market.”
According to the report, the current approximate overcapacity is around 6%.Therefore the combined capacity of deliveries of new ships needs to be lower than the estimated capacity of 35 million CGT a year to absorb this oversupply.