Last week, Hapag Lloyd announced in a statement that it will place an order with shipyards for 22 ships between 1,800 and 4,500 TEU in order to renew its aging ships of a certain size.
In the talks, CEO Rolf Habben Jansen, referring to the growing order book, said that with a 3% annual demand increase, the current order book can be absorbed, new ships will replace aging tonnage, and thus can offset some of the impact of new ships on the market.
Statistically, ship broker Braemar estimates that fleet growth this year will be around 7%. However, researcher Jonathan Roach added that the diversions in the Red Sea “effectively balance the impact of oversupply,” saying, “As a result, we expect the baseline oversupply scenario, which was around 13% in 2025, to drop to around 4%.”
