Drewry says casacading in the liner industry is set to reach new levels.

New ULCVs will force a second wave of bigger ships moving into North-South lanes, reports Drewry

THE cascade of increasingly larger containerships from the Asia-Europe trade to smaller trades is set for a second, “potentially more destructive”, phase, with a new generation of ultra-large container vessels moving into North-South lanes, according to a new report from analyst Drewry.

Drewry’s latest Container insight Weekly report notes that it has been 10 years since the launch of Maersk Line’s E-class ships, which sparked an evolutionary leap in containership sizes. And because carriers’ stock of ready-to-cascade Asia-Europe containerships is almost empty, Drewry believes new ULCVs will force the cascade into a potentially more destructive second phase.

It said the maiden voyage of Emma Maersk in September 2006 “hyper-inflated” the maximum ship size overnight from 9,200 teu to 15,550 teu, although Maersk significantly understated the capacity at the time at around 11,000 teu.

Read the full article at Lloydslist.