Shipping companies with huge amounts of cash often think of buying ships to expand their fleets first. At present, France Dafei shipping group has placed 69 orders for container ships, and the total cost is estimated to exceed 66.9 billion yuan. The Swiss mediterranean shipping company, which bought 169 container ships in 18 months, is also more active in buying ships. The Greek shipping enterprises, which control 20% of the global maritime transport capacity, have no mercy on buying ships. In 2021, the orders for new ships from Greece reached 173.
Recently, the major shipping companies have successively released their first quarterly reports, and the global container shipping industry continues the hot market of last year. Some shipping companies can earn money from one ship per trip, while some shipping companies can earn an average of 600million yuan a day.
It has long been an open secret that the shipping enterprises have enjoyed a prosperous life in the past two years. At present, the shipping companies that have announced the results of the first quarter have shown substantial growth in operating revenue and profit year-on-year. COSCO Haikong, the world's fourth largest shipping company, reported that in the first quarter of 2022, it achieved an operating revenue of 105.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 63%, and a net profit of 27.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 79%.
When the freight rate is the highest in 2022, if a container ship loaded with 20000 TEU goes from Shanghai, China to London, England, the freight income of one voyage will be about US $160million. Excluding all kinds of costs, the cost of the ship can be basically wiped out, which is equivalent to the net profit of a ship when the owner travels to Europe.
Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, reported revenue of US $19.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022, a year-on-year increase of 55% and EBITDA of US $9.1 billion. On average, it is equivalent to earning 669million yuan per day.
According to the data of Shanghai Shipping Exchange, the comprehensive freight rate index of Shanghai export containers released in early June has exceeded 4200 points, an increase of more than 32 points over the previous period. The shipping consulting company deluli recently raised the annual profit forecast of the container shipping company to 300billion US dollars, about 2trillion yuan, an increase of 40.19% over last year.
Shipping enterprises hold huge amounts of cash to buy new ships and expand their fleet
The shipping market is so hot that shipowners' orders are pouring into the upstream shipyards. Last year, the price of container ships rose by 50%. Even under this background, the enthusiasm of ship owners to place orders and rush to buy new ships is still high.
Shipping companies with huge amounts of cash often think of buying ships to expand their fleets first. At present, France Dafei shipping group has placed 69 orders for container ships, and the total cost is estimated to exceed 66.9 billion yuan.
The Swiss mediterranean shipping company, which bought 169 container ships in 18 months, is also more active in buying ships. The Greek shipping enterprises, which control 20% of the global maritime transport capacity, have no mercy on buying ships. In 2021, the orders for new ships from Greece reached 173. At present, more than one third of the oil tankers under construction and nearly one sixth of the LNG carriers under construction in the world will be delivered to Greek shipping enterprises.
The huge gantry crane slowly carries hundreds of tons of components. Hundreds of workers are busy working in the dock. Sparks from electric welding are flying everywhere. Today, it is such a busy scene every day on Shanghai Changxing Island, the world's largest shipbuilding base. Hudong Zhonghua shipyard is a large Shipyard with nearly 100 years of shipbuilding experience. At present, it holds 57 orders for new ships, with a total amount of more than 68billion yuan. The delivery plan has been scheduled to 2025.
Chenjun, general manager of CSSC Hudong Zhonghua shipyard: our goal this year is to deliver 5 large LNG ships (LNG carriers), including 6 super large container ships.
Recently, the German shipbuilding and Marine Industry Association said that the vast majority of orders in the global shipbuilding industry have gone to China and South Korea.
Stefan Wolff, journalist of the German Public Broadcasting Corporation: German shipbuilding industry has been the world leader for a long time, but now this position has been replaced by more and more Asian shipyards.
In 2021, German new ship orders were not given to local shipyards. 55% of the orders went to China, 44% to South Korea, and only about 1% remained in the EU.
In the first five months of this year, China undertook 247 new ship orders in the world, accounting for 52.5% of the global market share, ranking first; South Korea undertook 148 ships, accounting for 38.5%, ranking second; Japan undertook 38 vessels, accounting for 7.3%, ranking third.
At present, there are nearly 900 container ships under construction worldwide, with a total transport capacity of about 6.8 million standard containers. The Danish ship finance company issued a warning in early May that "if the current new ship orders continue, the future excess capacity will affect the container market for a long time."
Caoyawei, deputy director of the Institute of foreign investment and cooperation of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said: it takes 1 to 3 years from receiving the order to building the ship. Often when the shipping cycle may be at the high point, the ship owner orders to buy the ship. When the ship is built, it may be at the low point of the shipping cycle. Therefore, attention should be paid to adjusting the industrial rhythm of shipbuilding industry.