SHIPYARD deliveries of containerships in the ten months into 2024 have reached a new annual record, according to the shipping association BIMCO.

Niels Rasmussen, chief shipping analyst at BIMCO, shared that a total of 410 ships with a capacity of 2.5 million TEU have been delivered, surpassing the previous full year high of 2.3 million TEU in 2023.

The deliveries have increased the size of the container fleet by 2.4 million TEU (8.7 per cent) since the beginning of 2024. The container fleet now consists of 6,699 ships with a capacity of 30.4 million TEU, reports Rotterdam's Offshore Energy.

Mr Rasmussen said: "Despite the rapid expansion of the fleet, owners continue to add orders for new ships. So far this year, contracting is already more than double that of last year's total and 286 ships with a capacity of 3.3 million TEU have been added to the order book. The order book dipped to 5.9 million TEU in early June but is now back at 7.6 million TEU, 25 per cent of the size of the total fleet."

It was also reported that even though the order book is currently marginally smaller than the 7.8 million TEU record from early 2023, the operating owners' order book is at a record high of 5.9 million TEU.

Operating owners are said to control 78 per cent of the order book, but only 60 per cent of the fleet, and therefore are expected to see their fleet continue to grow faster than non-operating owners.

As per BIMCO, ships with a capacity between 12,000 and 17,000 TEU have driven 42 per cent of the capacity growth since early 2020 and will also be the main driver of growth in the coming years as they contribute 47 per cent of the capacity in the order book. Ships larger than 17,000 TEU have contributed 25 per cent of fleet growth in the 2020s and make up 27 per cent of the order book's capacity.

Another 0.5 million TEU are scheduled to be delivered during the rest of 2024, driving deliveries for the year close to 3.0 million TEU, BIMCO claimed, adding that during the next four years, an average of 1.7 million TEU are scheduled to be delivered each year and 0.3 million TEU are already planned for delivery in 2029. Additional ships for delivery in the next five years can still be ordered.