Within any shipping company you usually have various container vessels which you own, then various that you charter. This allows you to be flexible. So a shippi

Within any shipping company you usually have various container vessels which you own, then various that you charter. This allows you to be flexible. So a shipping company could hand back some chartered vessels, then buy Hanjin ones. If they buy it cheaply, the average cost per day should be lower than the charter rate. Ideally they'd do this in a smart way. So same size vessels and just reduce cost. In practice, they'll probably buy bigger vessels than they used to have (bigger vessel has a lower cost per container, provided they're fully utilized). Then lower the rates as they notice it is difficult to fill them (no change supply/demand). A few years ago the shipping companies idled vessels to reduce capacity (instead of lowering prices). In 2016 it seems they do both (bit of idling, but also compete on price). Note that I didn't notice any shipping company making a profit in 2016. Average is a -5% EBIT margin ( http://www.alphaliner.com/get_public_newsletter.php?file=2016/no22/Alphaliner%20Newsletter%20no%2022%20-%202016.pdf http://www.alphaliner.com/get_public_newsletter.php?file=201... ); though this source is from May 2016.