Supply Chain Research

China’s shipyards received 4.28 million dwt of orders in September, the highest since April 2016 and the third month of accelerating orders. That raises the prospect of significant growth in global shipping capacity, which is one of the reasons for the recent drop in container-rates. Growth in capacity is likely to continue for some time with the book-to-bill ratio for the industry at 1.1x resulting in an aggregate 81.2 million dwt of unfilled orders.