MAERSK BEAUMONT Photo: Hannes van Rijn http://www.marinetraffic.com

We have recently posted about the roller coaster ride that has been container ship design over the last few decades.  See Containerships – from Slow to Fast to Slow to Fast to Slow Again.  The smartest minds in the shipping industry have not been able to predict what the right speed for the box boats will be.  One example of this are the seven virtually new 4,000 TEU Maersk B Class ships designed to operate at 30 knots, all of which went almost directly into layup.    What a difference a couple of years makes – Maersk, which spent an estimated $350 million dollars to build these 30 knot ships, is now “slow steaming” much of its fleet at 12 to 14  knots. Financial Times had a recent article about the plight of the Maersk B Class Ships.
World’s fastest container ships mothballed

The sight that emerges from the mist during a trip up Loch Striven, on Scotland’s west coast, is a striking illustration of container shipping’s biggest-ever crisis. Five of the six ships lashed together here out of use include remarkable, highly expensive vessels all built within the last four years.

The five B Class vessels were designed by their owner – Maersk Line, the world’s largest container ship operator – to be the fastest container ships afloat. The seven ships – the other two are laid up in Thailand – were to rush containers from China to New York at up to 30 knots – well above the then-normal 23 to 24. They are now post horses put out to grass in a world where high fuel prices, recession and over-supply of ships are pushing typical speeds down to a carthorse pace of 14 knots.