THE total capacity of the world's idle containership fleet has fallen to 1.37 million TEU, or 532 ships, after 30 vessels totalling 70,000 TEU were put back into service from the middle of January.

AXS-Alphaliner analysts also said the carrier-operated idle fleet now stands at 188 containerships with a total capacity of 744,000 TEU.

"The fall in the number of idle ships only had a limited impact on charter rates, which have remained largely unchanged except for the large sizes where demand has picked up, relative to the number of available vessels. For the smaller vessel categories, the size of the surplus fleet remains significant and is likely to remain high," said the Alphaliner newsletter.

It attributed the reduction in the idle fleet size to the following factors: extra slow steaming for deploying some of the larger vessels on the long-haul trades; new services that have mainly been deploying the smaller vessels ranging in size between 1,000 and 2,500 TEU; and a "limited number of extra loaders being deployed for the pre-lunar new year cargo rush," primarily on Asia-Mediterranean trade routes.

The Paris-based consultancy estimates that the extra slow steaming technique has so far absorbed 320,000 TEU of excess capacity, and this number is forecast to rise to 380,000 TEU by March. According to its records, the extra slow steaming technique is being practiced on 66 long-haul services.

It said that 19 out of 23 Far East-North Europe services have already started or will implementing extra slow steaming by March. As a result, the average duration of Far East to Europe services has been extended from eight weeks in 2007 to 9.7 weeks at present.

"The majority of services on this route now run in 10 weeks, with one service (the Grand Alliance Loop B) sailing on an extended 12 week rotation," the news letter said.

It said that three out of the four loops to North Europe provided by the CKYH Alliance carriers are to be stretched by one week.

Other attempts to lower fuel expenses include plans by CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd to slow down their joint Europe-Australia service (NEW NEMO/ANS). Alphaliner said the service will be run in 13 weeks instead of 12 weeks with an additional 2,800-TEU vessel ship to join the rotation.

European shipper Michelin was cited as saying in the news letter that "a move from eight to nine ships per loop, producing an extended transit of 3.5 days per direction, is 'acceptable' and could be integrated into shippers' stock levels as it came with the 'guarantee' of a better schedule reliability. However it warned that extending the rotation further to a 12 week loop would incur significant increases in stock levels and raise inventory costs for shippers."