WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE THOSE PESKY CABLESHIPS? BY REBECCA SPENCE
J
anuary 2021 is finally upon us and the cableship fleet is starting the year at a great clip. The amount of activity did slow a little in the last few weeks with the holidays, but as COVID-19 restrictions have limited the frequency with which maritime crews can be replaced, there was less down time than might be seen in other years. This edition of Where in the World Are Those Pesky Cableships has the usual updates of what the fleet is currently doing, as well as a review of the past year. At the time the data for this article was collected in early January, there were 11 vessels in transit to their destinations (Figure 1). Two were set to arrive at their destinations the second week in January, 6 would arrive later in the month, and another 3 have estimated arrival dates several months out. Though the number of ships in transit changes day by day, since mid-2020 the number of ships in transit to destinations several weeks out has slowly increased. 77 percent of the fleet had reached their most recent destinations and 23 percent were in transit. The majority of 2020 saw a slightly lower number of vessels in transit, sitting closer to 20 percent until recently. Figure 3 examines the average speeds reported between early February when we started tracking the cableships, and the last day of the year. The vast majority, 77 percent, reported daily speeds of less than 1 knot, which includes 47 percent of ships that reported days with no movement at all. Another percent reported a speed between 1 and 5 knots, 9 percent stayed between 6 and 10 percent and the remaining 11 percent of daily reports were more than 11 knots. The current fleet has not changed much over the course of the year. Apart from the loss of the C/S Responder, not other changes were made. Our data currently tracks the activities of 47 cable vessels across the globe. East Asia, China, and South East Asia saw the most
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activity throughout the year with a combined 24 percent of the daily reports occurring in those three regions. Naturally, vessels would report a large number of days in those areas as they cover a vast area. The subsequent most active regions were the North Sea, Northeast Atlantic, Baltic Ocean, Persian Gulf, and North American West Coast with 5-9 percent of daily reports. The remaining 34 percent of daily reports were spread among 23 regions. The majority of these regions had less than one percent of the activity for the year. The first year tracking these vessels has been interesting as there was data that might have been affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. As more time passes, the impact of the covid-19 epidemic on the submarine cable industry will become clearer and the data will show what a normal year should be with regards to progress and activity. . STF REBECCA SPENCE is the newest member of the SubTel Forum team. She joined our ranks as a Research Analyst at the end of 2019. A graduate of Christopher Newport University, this is Rebecca’s premier article for the STF magazine.