t's a decent way of describing the problems of the container-shipping industry in recent years. Warnings about overcapacity date back almost a decade, yet even with a slowdown in trade, the global box fleet just kept growing and growing and growing.
The deadweight tonnage of the world's container ships more than doubled in the decade through June 2016 and didn't decline in any single quarter, according to IHS Global Ltd. data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. Even after demolitions of older and unprofitable ships began to outstrip orders of new vessels in 2012, the fleet kept expanding for four years.
Then something changed. Since June, 104 ships have left the global fleet, reducing capacity by about 2.5 million deadweight tons. That's helped lift rates: The price for shipping a 40-foot container from Hong Kong to Los Angeles has tripled from $776 to $2,336 at the end of January, according to Drewry, the London-based research firm -- the highest level for the route since 2013, and not far below the record in figures dating back to 2011.
