Marine Monthly – June 2026: Orderbooks still up MoM. Tankers creating congestion at Panama canal

Research evidence excerpt

Marine Monthly – June 2026: Orderbooks still up MoM. Tankers creating congestion at Panama canal

Barclays | Marine Monthly – June 2026

Container orders remain high YTD. The pace of absolute new containership orders remains

strong YTD in 2026 as the industry has placed new orders for c1.9mn TEU (i.e. c6% of the current

fleet). New orders in May amounted to c240k TEU lower than the c460k TEU ordered in April,

while 84k TEU were ordered by early June. The container orderbook as a percentage of the fleet

continued to increase MoM to 38% in May-26, vs. 37% in Apr-26 while tanker orderbook is also

strong and showed MoM increase at c23% in May-26 vs. c22% in Apr-26. Initial Marine

contracting data (could be subject to some upward revisions) showed a c13% YoY increase in

May, following a c79% increase in April. Of the larger vessel groups, containership was up c38%

YoY in May following +3% YoY in April. Bulker absolute vessel contracting was up 4% YoY in May,

while it it was already up c6x YoY in April. Tanker contracting data continued strong +263%

YoY in May, following an already very solid rate in April, up 258% YoY. Clarksons expects

vessel deliveries in 2026 at MSD% for containerships before peak levels of 10% in 2027 and 15%

in 2028. The orderbook looks to be peaking at MSD% for bulkers in 2027 before reducing

thereafter, while for tankers we continue to see a strong pick-up in orders feeding through

into very strong delivery outlook over the next two years, with tanker deliveries following a

similar pattern and peaking in 2027-28 both at c6% before easing (although the orderbook for

2030 should continue to grow). Scrapping rates remain very low across vessel types, while idling

remains broadly stable at c6% for tankers, c4% for bulkers and c2% for containership in