[Vigilanteman]

Of course, less efficient vessels get mothballed first. My point is that shipping companies are more concerned with keeping an artificial shortage so they can keep their capacity tight and their rates up than they are with clearing backlog and serving their customers.

It is sort of like denying a small town the services of what might be a reasonably good GP doctor because he or she is not a competent brain surgeon.

[wbill]

Absolutely, I'm not disagreeing with you - I was just wondering how the companies went about the process.

I'd imagine that end-of-year shipping is starting to ramp up around now. Certainly, Back-to-school garments + supplies must be in transit. Its concerning, to me, that shippers are not ramping up capacity accordingly.

From a logistical standpoint, the more efficient ships would, ultimately, be cheaper to run. Predictably and perversely, any artificial backlog that was created would, I'd think, take longer to clear. "We can keep ships A, B and C running as is, and clear the log in 4 months..... or .... we can spend X millions of dollars to bring ships Y and Z back online, and clear the same backlog in 3 months. Why spend the extra money?"

I'd also think that if the shipping companies are looking at this as a temporary "blip" in production, there would be even less incentive to bring more shipping online. I'm sure there are costs involved to re-mothball ships.

Of course, you're right in that the customers are taking it right in the shorts, but that's a whole other discussion.

Your anecdote was incredibly valuable. Thanks for sharing.