Alphaliner has reported that as of March 11, the capacity of idled container vessels has hit an all time high of 1.6 million TEU.

The consultancy counts a total of 350 idle ships, about 8 percent of the global fleet – less than the 10 percent level seen in 2009, but high nonetheless. And with roughly 1 million TEU due for delivery this year and an estimated annual fleet growth of 4 percent, Alphaliner expects the number to get larger. Demand growth is forecast to be positive, but not enough to keep up with so many newbuilds entering service.

About a third of the idled capacity consists of vessels in the 7,500 TEU and above size range, according to the firm.

Alphaliner suggested that ships displaced from softening routes – Asia-Europe, Asia-West Africa, Asia-Latin America – are being redeployed to other business sectors, where the cascading tonnage may be used to replace carriers' chartered vessels off, and disrupting the pre-existing market.

Andrew Abbott, CEO of Atlantic Container Line Canada, recently told the Globe and Mail that the new ultra-large container vessels entering the Asia-Europe trade were pushing out older tonnage onto Atlantic routes, creating a rates "bloodbath".

"All of these big [shipping] lines have added so many ships, it's gotten out of control, totally," said Mr. Abbott. "As they bring on a big, big ship on the Far East-Europe run...they've been sticking those [smaller ships] in the Atlantic and dropping the prices accordingly. It's actually squeezed us a lot."

Earlier in the month, Drewry reported that an index average of rates on 11 key container routes fell by 60 percent over the past year.