New orders of merchant vessels worldwide 2020-2021 by ship type
The contracting activity at shipyards worldwide was generally growing between May 2020 and March 2021, while April and May of 2021 saw fewer orders for new ships than the previous months. Orders for new container ships accounted for most of the new orders at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. This surge in demand for new container ships was caused by the growing container freight rates, enabling shipping companies to invest their profits into increasing their shipping capacity.
