A twelve-year-old feeder is now worth more than the cargo it carries, and that tells you where the charter market is going
Second-hand values have outrun scrap economics for eleven straight months. Owners are betting the alliance reshuffle keeps small tonnage scarce.
ROTTERDAM — A 1,700-TEU feeder built in 2014 sold this month for $28.4 million. The same unit was worth $9.1 million in the autumn of 2023, and its scrap value is about $5.6 million.
Second-hand values for small tonnage have now run ahead of scrap economics for eleven consecutive months. That is not a freight-market story; it is a bet on scarcity.
Why owners are holding
The February alliance reshuffle adds feeder legs to strings that previously ran direct. Nobody has ordered the tonnage to serve them, and the yards that build it are full of larger boxes until 2029.
Owners are pricing that gap. Charterers, who have to serve the schedules either way, are paying it.
Ruben Castellanos
Writes the weekly market brief and covers the charter market.Ruben writes the weekly market brief and covers charter, newbuild and second-hand tonnage.