The fleet of idled container vessels is shrinking with the surge in the volume of Asia-US trade and the carriers deploying some of them for their extra slow steaming long-haul services, Exim News Service reports.
There are now reportedly some 15 strings applying the extra slow steaming techniques connecting ports in the Far East to the US West Coast and accounting for 39 per cent of all services on the transpacific route to the US West Coast.
By comparison, eight out of 19 Far East-US East Coast services are now applying extra slow steaming to absorb surplus tonnage and reduce fuel expenses and emissions, representing 42 per cent of the total service strings.
The number of Far East-North Europe strings on extra slow steaming is 20, with only three loops being still out of the slow steaming mode.