The Financial Times says that ony 10 crew are needed to maintain a mothballed ship, while 120 are needed to keep one at sea. Click the photo to read the FT article.
As trade growth accelerated following China’s accession to the World Trade Organisation, container lines sold their services on their speed, arguing that the faster service allowed customers to hold fewer Chinese toys and electrical appliances in stock. That strategy has been upended by the worldwide economic slump of the past 18 months. Falling demand and significant ship deliveries mean most shipping lines now have spare capacity. [The new ships’] narrow, yacht-like hulls are suited only to high-speed operation. “You can’t run them at conventional speeds – they’re fairly inefficient,” one expert says. Maersk is considering modifying the vessels, possibly by shortening them, to suit them to the new, lower-speed environment. The US navy could also convert them into supply ships.