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Over
the past four years many panamax vessels
have been employed on the Far East-Middle
East, Asia-Latin America and Europe-Latin
America routes. Yet they are being superseded
by larger vessels at present. Numerous 8,000-14,000
TEU ships have been used on the Middle East
trade, and 7,500-9,600 vessels on South
America route.
Due
to certain constraints at Australian ports,
the Far East-Australia trade lane has become
one of the key routes for panamax fleet.
Other
key routes for panamax ships are those short-haul
intra-regional trade lanes, in particular
the China domestic coastal route and the
North Europe-Mediterranean route.
These
three sectors employ almost a quarter of
the panamax vessels over 4,000 TEU, said
Alphaliner.
However,
even in those small trade lanes that do
not require larger ships, panamaxes are
facing new rivals – the new wide-beam postpanamax
containerships of between 4,000 and 5,100
TEU.
These
wide-beam ships feature better designs than
the conventional panamaxes in regard to
less fuel consumption at slow steaming and
enhanced loadability.
In
the past three years, 47 wide-beam ships
of 4,000-5,100 TEU have been delivered,
and a further 158 units will come in the
following three years.
Aside
from container shipping, panamax ships are
widely used in dry bulk shipping. But a
recent Drewry Maritime Research report said
that the panamax segment in dry bulk market
is likely to face a problem of oversupply.
Recent
reports conducted by Drewry and BIMCO indicate
that the panamax segment has experienced
a boom in newbuildings in 2012.
Drewry
expects that the new panamax tonnage in
full-year 2012 will reach 36 million dwt
(dead weight tons), up 50 per cent year
compared to 2011.
And
BIMCO anticipates a tonnage of 24.5 million
dwt to be delivered in the last five months
of this year. And in 2013, a further 23.9
million dwt will be added.
As
many new panamax ships have been delivered,
the entire panamax fleet is relatively young.
BIMCO projected that 15.5 per cent of the
panamax fleet will be less than one year
old by the end of 2012.
Facing
severe challenges ahead, owners of panamax
ships may need to seriously consider postponing
deliveries or cancelling orders outright,
as demand for these vessels is likely to
drop swiftly.
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