The containership fleet is ageing fast.
Around 2,000 ships, totalling almost 6m TEU, are now at least 20 years old.
Many expected that to trigger a wave of scrapping.
It did not.
Only five small containerships, with a combined capacity of about 5,000 TEU, were commercially recycled in H1/2026.
Why are owners still keeping ships that many thought would already be gone?
Age is not the deciding factor
Less than 1% of global containership capacity is currently idle.