摘要: |
At the start of this year, the share of the general cargo fleet (pure car carriers, ro-ro cargo ships, multi-purpose vessels, small coastal general cargo vessels, special cargo vessels, heavy lift units and reefer vessels) was 5.8% in terms of dwt, but 30.6 % in term of number of vessels. General cargo vessels are employed in a variety of different markets. At the beginning of 2023, the total general cargo fleet consisted of 18434 ships with about 127.5 million dwt. In comparison, the order book amounted to 613 vessels with 11.2 million dwt, equivalent to 8.8 per cent of the fleet. The yearly growth rate for conventional general cargo ships in the period 2019-2023 stood at 2.1 per cent. In the same period, the fleet of special cargo ships and ro-ro cargo ships, measured in tonnage, increased by 3.0 per cent and 1.7 per cent, respectively. Reefer vessels are increasingly replaced by container ships. They are by far the smallest part of the general cargo fleet. Thus, the capacity of the reefer fleet decreased by 2.5 per cent on average in the mentioned period. The following analysis highlights two major segments of the general cargo fleet: pure car carriers (PCC) and ro-ro cargo vessels (freight-only transport, excluding ro-pax ferries). |