Analysis of The Development Trend of Small And Medium-sized Container Ships

From the objective reality of the diversity of market demand, this paper studies the prospects for the development of small and medium-sized container ships, in order to suggest that while developing large-scale container ships, it should be noted that small and medium-sized container ships have a stronger adaptability in the transport market.

▍Analysis of the Current Situation of the Small and Medium-sized Container Ship Market

1. Market Size and Growth Trend

With the rapid development of global trade, the small and medium-sized container ship market shows a trend of continuous growth. According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), as of 2023, the total global fleet of small and medium-sized container ships has reached nearly 8,000 ships, and the market scale is expanding. In terms of growth trend, the demand for small and medium-sized container ships market will continue to rise due to the global economic recovery and the expected growth in international trade.

2. Route Layout and Transportation Demand

With the adjustment of global trade pattern, the route layout of small and medium-sized container ships is also being optimized. In terms of transportation demand, with the deepening of global economic integration, the volume of international trade and the demand for container transportation continue to grow, which brings a stable source of cargo for the small and medium-sized container ship market.

▍Limitations of Large Container Ships

1. Ship Cost

For large container ships, both ship costs, operating costs, or voyage costs are much higher than small and medium-sized container ships. Therefore, the required appropriate cargo size is correspondingly much higher, and the routes that can provide appropriate cargo size to large container ships will be correspondingly less.

2. Higher Requirements for Port Facilities

The docking and loading and unloading operations of large container ships put forward high requirements for port facilities. In order to ensure the safe docking of ships, ports need to have a certain channel depth, quay length and lifting equipment.

3. Energy Consumption Problem

With the continuous expansion of the ship scale, the energy consumption of large container ships is also climbing year by year. Data show that the energy consumption of a large container ship is about 2-3 times that of a medium-sized ship.

4. Safety Hazards

Large container ships are bulky and difficult to maneuver, especially in narrow waterways and port areas. In the case of large wind and waves, the ship is prone to accidents such as deviation from the channel and collision. The larger the ship, the more serious the damage after an accident.

▍Advantages of Small and Medium-sized Container Ships

By 2023, small and medium-sized container ships, with a total share of 63.3 per cent, will occupy a major part of the global total capacity. Because of the flexibility of small and medium-sized container ships, they are more in line with the needs of flexible transportation. Compared with the limitations of large container ships in terms of flexibility, the advantages shown by small and medium-sized container ships are obvious, which are manifested in several aspects:

① Small and medium-sized container ships can easily organize cargoes directly in small and medium-sized ports and carry out direct transportation, thus reducing intermediate transshipment links and shortening the whole transportation time.

② Small and medium-sized container ships in the port operation time is shorter, so that the goods in the harbor detention time is reduced.

③ Small and medium-sized container ships adopt multi-port decentralized transport mode, which leads to the balanced land transport and avoids the bottleneck of land transport arising from the over-concentration of the flow direction.

④ Small and medium-sized container ships are easy to organize cargo, so the full rate is high, while the full rate of large container ships is generally lower than that of small and medium-sized container ships.

⑤ The use of small and medium-sized container ships despite the unit cost of transportation will increase, but now there are more and more cargo owners prefer to appropriately increase the cost of transportation to ensure that the supply of goods JIT requirements, that is, to increase the cost of shipping in exchange for the reduction of the cost of the entire product chain, and thus make the product to the market to respond to the market is more timely in order to obtain a competitive advantage in the market.

⑥ The feeder and coastal transportation supporting the trunk line requires a large number of small and medium-sized container ships, and these small and medium-sized container ships are easy to be freely deployed on the feeder and trunk lines, making the use of ships to increase flexibility.

Conclusion

In summary, small and medium-sized container ships have a broad development prospect in the global shipping market. With the growth of global trade and rising demand for logistics and transportation, the market demand for small and medium-sized container ships will continue to grow.

Qinhai Shipyard is located in the prime location of China's Yangtze River Delta, based on the positioning of "small and precise" ship products. In order to better expand the market, Qinhai Shipyard implements the differentiation strategy to provide customers with tailor-made ship solutions. For different routes, transportation needs and customer budgets, various types of small and medium-sized container ships are designed. In the future development, Qinhai Shipyard will strive to become a leader in the field of small and medium-sized container shipbuilding and contribute to the prosperity of the global shipping industry by continuously improving its R&D capability and manufacturing level.