Container lessors buying more boxes
Container leasing companies say they expect another good year in 2011, expecting container-shipping companies to rely more heavily on them for equipment.
Textainer, which said it is the world’s-largest lessor of intermodal containers based on fleet size, said this month it expects new container production to be about 3.5 million TEUs in 2011, compared to about 2.4 million TEUs in 2010, “due to stronger replacement demand, vessel capacity growth of approximately 6.8 percent and cargo volume growth of approximately 9.7 percent.' Nearly all containers are manufactured in China.
“In 2010, the container-leasing industry purchased about two-thirds of all new container production as shipping lines were capital constrained. We expect the leasing sector to be major purchasers and suppliers of new containers again in 2011 as shipping lines continue to rely on leasing companies, such as Textainer, to meet their requirements for new containers,' the company said. 'As a result of these positive trends, we expect utilization to remain in the high 90 percent range and the resale market for used containers to remain strong during 2011.”
Textainer said it purchased a record 214,000 of containers in 2010 at a cost of $503.7 million.
The lessor also said it is pursuing a strategy of owning more of its container fleet, and reducing the share it manages for other owners, noting it generally earns significantly more income per TEU from owned containers. The company said it owns 50.9 percent of its fleet as compared to 45.4 percent as of Dec. 31, 2009.
Textainer said earlier this month its 2010 net profit was about $120 million compared to $91 million in 2009. Revenue last year was about $236 million compared to $190 million in 2009.
Brian M. Sondey, president and chief executive officer, of TAL International, which leases both containers and chassis, said he expects “shipping lines to continue to rely more heavily on leasing than they have historically, though perhaps not to the full extent they did in 2010. As a result, we generally expect the favorable market environment to continue into 2011, and expect our financial performance to continue to benefit from exceptionally high utilization, market leasing rates and used container sale prices.”
Sondey said the company has ordered more than $300 million of containers for delivery in 2011, many of which have already been committed to leases. 'Based on our existing new container orders and committed customer lease transactions, we expect strong sequential growth in our leasing revenue to continue at least through the first half of 2011,” he said.
TAL invested heavily in new equipment in 2010, with total orders delivered during the year exceeding $880 million, including more than 300,000 TEUs of dry containers and about 25,000 TEUs of refrigerated containers.
TAL reported profit of $71.6 million in 2010 compared to $57.7 million in 2009. It had revenue in 2010 of $366.8 million compared to $352.5 million in 2009. ' Chris Dupin