Up to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, there was a shortage of car carrier capacity.
The fleet then included a lot of older vessels, many of which were scrapped enabling the market to recover from the economic downturn.
For example, in late 2009 Hoegh Autoliners’ decided to scrap eight car carriers in China.
However, an orderbook of more than 150 newbuildings meant the fleet quickly grew again and, when rates fell once more in 2016 and 2017, there were fewer older vessels to scrap.
