A total of 397 container ships of more than 500 TEUs are tied, and 140 other container ships have been sent to scraps in the first ten months of 2016 (Photo Jesus Nieto- Harbour Authority of Vigo)

Moreover, according to data from Lloyd's List Intelligence, which includes inactivity vessels for five or more days, there are 348 container carriers tied out of a total of 5,140, 6.8 per cent of the world fleet in number of vessels and 4.3 per cent in terms of capacity. In fact, if it weren't for the record number of scraps in the year, the fleet tied to today would probably be in very higher numbers. In the first 10 months of 2016, 144 ships have been sent to the scrapping, with a total capacity of 488,050 TEU a record number and 4.2% higher than the same period of 2015, according to Peter Sands, chief analyst of BIMCO.

The most significant thing is that 41% of the total capacity broken down in 2016 has been broken down in the last 3 months. Of this number, Panamax-sized vessels account for 47 per cent of the total. For Sands, this strong increase in scrapping over the past 3 months means "a pleasant surprise" and "a push in the right direction" because it is a step towards a greater supply-demand balance, but it clearly indicates that the situation in this market continues to deteriorate.