- Global container fleet capacity has expanded from 4.5 Mteu in 2000 to 33.6 Mteu today
- Market concentration has increased, with the top 10 carriers now controlling 84% of global capacity
- Average container vessel size has risen from about 1,700 teu to roughly 4,500 teu
- Fleet growth has accelerated in recent years, exceeding 2 Mteu per year
According to a recent overview published by Alphaliner, the container shipping industry has undergone unprecedented expansion and structural change over the past 25 years, marking a defining period in the sector’s development.
Fleet growth over a single vessel lifecycle
While container shipping dates back to 1956, when a converted oil tanker was deployed as the world’s first container ship on a domestic US route, Alphaliner highlights that the most dramatic growth has occurred since the start of the millennium. Over a timeframe roughly equivalent to the commercial life of a single vessel, global container fleet capacity expanded from 4.5 Mteu to 33.6 Mteu.During the same period, the number of container ships in operation increased on a net basis from 2,622 units to 7,492 units. This expansion was accompanied by a sharp rise in average vessel size, which grew from approximately 1,700 teu to around 4,500 teu.
Consolidation and market concentration
Alphaliner data shows that organic fleet growth, combined with a wave of mergers and acquisitions in the 2010s, significantly reshaped market structure. As a result, 84% of global container ship capacity is now controlled by the top 10 ocean carriers, compared with 61% at the beginning of the millennium.
Newbuilding pipeline and recent acceleration
The current newbuilding orderbook alone stands at close to 11.0 Mteu, depending on the classification of firm orders. This volume is more than twice the size of the entire world container fleet at the start of the 2000s.
From 2003 to 2023, the world container fleet expanded in an almost linear fashion, with net capacity additions averaging around 1 Mteu per year, equivalent to roughly 20 Mteu over two decades. However, Alphaliner notes that fleet growth has accelerated over the past two years, with well over 2 Mteu per year added to the global liner fleet.
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Source – Alphaliner
