Containership Demolition Hits 20-Year Low as Orderbook Continues to Grow

Containership recycling is at record lows despite the expectation that older ships are due for retirement (Recycler Association of Turkey file photo)

Published Jan 28, 2026 6:40 PM by The Maritime Executive

The disposal of container ships during 2025 remained at record low levels as the industry sought to maintain capacity in part due to the continued diversion from the Red Sea. In a new report, Alphaliner highlights that demolitions are now at 20-year lows.

“The healthy container shipping market, with a high demand for tonnage and robust charter rates throughout the year have explained in great part shipowners' reluctance to dispose of their older tonnage, preferring instead to make the most of the lucrative trading environment,” reports Alphaliner.

Analyzing the sales, it reports that only 12 ships, with a total capacity of just 8,172 TEU, were scrapped in 2025, while three more ships have been sold but are yet to be demolished. Alhpaliner’s data compared the low of 2025 with the 95,607 TEU of capacity sold for recycling in 2024 and a record of 655,000 TEU sold in 2016. These sales come from an industry which Alphaliner reports now consists of more than 7,500 active vessels and a total capacity nearing 34 million TEU.

Further, it highlights that the vessels being sold for recycling are among the oldest and smallest in the sector. The ages ranged between 20 and 45 years, with an average of 30 years. Ten of the 12 ships were below a capacity of 1,000 TEU, with the largest ship being the 45-year-old Horizon Enterprise (ex. Austal Puritan), which had a capacity of 2,400 TEU. 

The low levels of recycling continue despite the expectations from analysts that carriers will start to dispose of their oldest and smallest tonnage, in part due to the need for efficiency and emerging environmental regulations.

The industry trade group BIMCO recently reported that it included recycling of 750,000 TEU capacity in its supply forecast for 2026-2027. “We estimate that a recycling overhang of 1.8 million TEU exists due to recycling during the past five years reaching only 272,000 TEU,” wrote BIMCO’s Chief Shipping Analyst, Niels Rasmussen. “If recycling ends lower than our forecast, we expect that the shortfall will add to oversupply of capacity in the market.”

Fueling the concerns for oversupply are the continued surge in newbuilding orders coming from many of the leading carriers and the anticipation that the Suez Canal – Red Sea corridor will reopen, releasing some of the capacity being used to offset the longer travel times around South Africa. 

Linerlytica calculated as of the end of 2025 that the orderbook was at 1,267 vessels. They set the total capacity on order at just over 11.7 million TEU, representing a 35 percent orderbook to fleet ratio. It said orders were up 36 percent year-over-year in 2025. Last year, 671 containerships were ordered, they report.

The pace of new orders has not slowed in the first month of 2026. Today, Evergreen Marine reported it has placed orders for 23 vessels, which could cost as much as $1.5 billion. Its focus is on the feeder ship segment, ordering ships between 3,100 and 5,900 TEU. In 2025, the carrier ordered 14 LNG dual-fuel 1,400 TEU ships and 11 ultra-large vessels with a capacity of 24,000 TEU. It followed news this month of orders linked to other major carriers, including MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company.