Page 16 - Port Of Hamburg Magazine 01.2018

■ 50 YEARS OF CONTAINERS IN HAMBURG
Jan Holst
Country Head Germany,
ONE Ocean Network Express, the ‘K’ Line, MOL & NYK partnership
“I am certainly sceptical on
the trend towards ever-larg-
er containerships. As ONE,
we shall admittedly have a
few 20,000-TEU vessels in
our fleet. However, our liner
structure involving numer-
ous inner-Asian connections
prevents us from deploying mega-ships to this extent because the ports lack the essential capacity. In addition, we cannot miss out on how our customers are developing. We all pay heed to costs when ordering. That means doing so more selec- tively, yet regularly. This means that it is important, especially on the Asia-Europe trade routes where consumer goods dom- inate, to ensure a constant link between the two continents. That makes cyclical use of 14,000-TEU-plus containerships appropriate for us now. Such is Ocean Network Express’s phi- losophy.”
Jan Tiedemann
Senior Analyst Liner Shipping and Ports, Alphaliner/BRS Hamburg
“For around twenty years now
Alphaliner has been monitoring
the development of the global
container fleet in great detail.
Despite the world economic crisis,
in the past ten years the fleet’s
total capacity has roughly doubled
– most recently to over 21 million
TEU. Over the same period, there
has been relatively little change
in the total number of containerships, currently about 5,200. The bulk of growth has been derived from the steadily increasing size of ship newbuilds. Whereas ten years ago vessels of 8,000 TEU were standard on the main trade routes, today ships can be of up to 21,000 TEU, while units of over 23,000 TEU are now under construction. Alphaliner assumes that in the long term, this new size bracket will continue to represent the upper limit of the trend. While we cannot rule out a possibility that further optimization will produce vessels of up to 25,000 TEU, we regard a further leap in size to 30,000 TEU or even more as improbable. While such ships would be technically feasible, they would offer neither ports nor shipowners further notable economies of scale or savings. Such giga-vessels also involve considerable financial and operative risks. So market growth will tend to occur through a further increase in the number of ULCVs, rather than even larger ships.”
Ralf Nagel
Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Presidential Committee, German Shipowners’ Association
“Will the trend toward ev-
er-larger containerships
continue? A glance into the
past indicates that reality
has always overtaken fore-
casts of maximum contain-
ership size. Even now, we
have not reached any abso-
lute limit. The effects of scale also mean that large vessels fundamentally make commercial sense. However, container- ships with 30, 40 or even 50,000 slots could only be deployed on very select trade routes. The benefits of scale, namely, only apply provided that larger ships are adequately load- ed with cargoes. Depending on its business plan and mar- ket segment, every shipping company will decide which ship sizes make most sense. Anybody operating a liner service on the main trade routes will plan differently from an own- er also deploying tonnage in the Caribbean or in the Africa trades. Smaller vessels will therefore continue to be sailing in future on many routes.”
16 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | March 2018
Norman Zurke
Chief Executive, Association of Port of Hamburg Enterprises
“Within the foreseeable fu-
ture, the Port of Hamburg will
have to adapt itself to ship
sizes involving capacities of
about 22,000 TEU. Still larger
vessels are certainly techni-
cally feasible, yet commercial
and nautical aspects set nar-
row limits on a further upturn
in ship size. With the ships
now in service, the potentials for savings on transport costs are already largely exhausted. Further costs benefits through still larger ships may be possible to a minimal extent, yet these as- sume that they are fully loaded. Since only a handful of ports can handle vessels with more than 22,000 TEU, flexible deployment of such mega-carriers is no longer possible. We therefore assume that no further quantum leap in ship size will occur. Companies in the Port of Hamburg are currently engaged in gradually adapting their handling facilities to be capable of handling ships with a ca- pacity of more than 20,000 TEU. If a start can be made on imple- menting the adjustment of the navigation channel on the Lower and Outer Elbe, the Port of Hamburg will be well positioned for the future.”
© UVHH
© ONE Ocean Network Express
© VDR/Frank Krems © HHM/Markus Grabsch