As being forecasted by the industry experts, the world container tonnage growth in 2009 will be at a 10-year low, mainly due to sea carriers postponing the deliveries of new vessels and scrapping the older ones.

According to AXS-Alphaliner, by the end of 2009 the world container tonnage will reach 13,26 million TEU compared with 12,36 million TEU at the end of 2008. Earlier it had been forecasted that by January of 2010 the tonnage would reach 14,02 million TEU.

Thus, in 2009 the tonnage will only increase by 7.3%, and not by 13.4% as had been forecasted. These growth figures will be at a 10-year low. For comparison: in 2008 the tonnage growth was 13.2%, in 2006 it was at a record high of 16.1%. Up to now the lowest growth was demonstrated in 2003 when the total world container tonnage only grew by 8.9%.

According to AXS-Alphaliner, the world container tonnage has been replenished by 190 new vessels with a total capacity of 784 thousand TEU. At the same time, 145 vessels with a total combined capacity of 275 thousand TEU were scrapped and utilized.

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AXS-Alphaliner is a sea line operator database service offered by the French company AXSMarine. The database combines information about vessel deliveries, their technical characteristics, as well as conducts research and provides forecasts about the development of the world container shipping market.