The containership demolition has reached its all time high as it surpassed 500,000 TEU, providing a positive surprise for the struggling container shipping industry, according to international shipping association BIMCO.

BIMCO have throughout 2016 focused on the level of demolition in the container shipping industry and the high level of demolition activity has continued its pace and exceeded our expectations.

“The demolition activity in the last three months’ surprised BIMCO positively and it exceeded our initial expectation based on the appalling 2015 demolition activity,” BIMCO’s Chief shipping analyst Peter Sand said, adding that the advance is “a push in the right direction.”

The number represents 4.2 times more TEU scrapped than in the same months in 2015, with the last 3 months accounting for more than 41 % of the total demolition in 2016.

The activity is picking up and is primarily generated by the Panamax container ships, which account for 47 % of the total demolition in 2016, while TEU scrapped from Intermediate and feeder containerships account for 30% and 23% respectively.

“It is important that the demolition of excess capacity comes sooner rather than later, as there is still a huge delivery schedule hanging over the container shipping industry for the rest of this year and well into 2017-2018,” Sand said.

The high demolition activity is currently softening the net supply growth rate of the container shipping capacity and, according to Sank, “will prevent a darker outlook for the years to come, if maintained.”