For an alleged cartel that President Biden believes is deviously ripping off Americans, the container shipping oligopoly is sure doing a lousy job of managing its future capacity.
The price of newbuild container ships keep rising, yet liner operators and ship-owning companies keep placing more orders at Asian yards, guaranteeing an ever-larger deluge of new vessels in 2023-25.
Capacity on order has now reached 27.9% of on-the-water capacity, according to Alphaliner. The ratio was a mere 8.2% at the cycle low in October 2020.
