The world’s two largest container lines – Maersk and MSC account for the biggest portion of idle fleet with a combined total of 845,000 out of service. More than half this figure, however, relates to vessels undergoing scrubber retrofits. In general, all inactive container shipping fleets have reached an all time high of 11.6% in capacity terms. This is due to a combination of blank sailings to mitigate the impact of lower demand from the Covid-19 pandemic and vessels taken out of service for scrubber retrofits. To retrofit vessels with scrubbers is to meet a mandate requiring the reduction of sulfur content in marine fuel from 3.5% to 0.5%, which started on the 1st January.