CONTAINERSHIP numbers should fall annually from 2014 for the first time in 20 years, says London's Drewry Maritime Research while adding that capacity growth will rise six per cent a year because ships are bigger.

Drewry said 230 new box ships are scheduled to be delivered in 2014, and 180 will enter the market in 2015 while 55 ships will be scrapped per quarter, thus having the number of ships leaving and joining the market balance out.

But most of incoming vessels will be larger than 5,000 TEU while most of the outgoing are less than 5,000 TEU.

Carriers may find smaller vessels harder to find in future, said Drewry, predicting a reduction in smaller ships will create investment opportunities for less-than-5,000 TEU units.