It is human nature to find cause for optimism, and the new year brings with it fresh hopes for a recovery in container shipping although the market remains fundamentally imbalanced. A slew of new records were set in 2016 but most of them marked new lows for a container shipping market that continues to suffer from excess capacity, with the weakness expected to persist for at least one more year.
 
The global containership fleet grew by only 1.5% to reach 20.27 Mteu at the end of 2016, the lowest annual growth rate ever recorded in the industry¡¯s history. Growth was kept low by the a record number of ships scrapped, with a total of 192 containership for 654,900 teu demolished in 2016. The total capacity of containerships deleted reached 200 units for 664,300 teu after adding a handful of de-celled ships and two casualties.
 
New containership deliveries fell to 934,500 teu in 2016, down 46% compared  the year before. Very weak employment prospects prompted owners to delay the deliveries of some 60 ships with a total capacity of 400,000 teu, while 18 ships with a total capacity of 57,000 teu are believed to have been cancelled.

The low supply growth was, however, insufficient to prevent the idle containership fleet from soaring to a record high of 1.59 Mteu in October before ending the year at 1.42 Mteu. The surplus capacity overhang remains the industry¡¯s biggest headache, especially with some 1.7 Mteu of new capacity due in 2017.