The disparity in the fleet sizes of the 10 largest container carriers and their smaller rivals is now at an all-time high, according to Alphaliner’s latest report.
Currently, market leader MSC has a fleet of 4.48 million TEU, compared with 20th ranked SM Line’s 93,410 TEU, working out to a gap of 4.38 million TEU. Back in 2017, when Maersk Line was the market leader, the gap between the Danish company and the 20th box line was 3.2 million TEU.
The figures show how much the largest liner operators have expanded their fleet size as their earnings rocketed over the past two years. As of mid-August, the top 10 carriers were operating 21.8 million TEU of capacity, while the next 20 carriers (rankings 11-30) were operating 2.5 million TEU.
The number of mainline operators having more than 1 million TEU has risen from six to seven in the last five years, because Japan’s Big Three carriers, Mitsui OSK Lines, NYK Line and ‘K’ Line amalgamated their container businesses to form Ocean Network Express.
Source: container-news.com