According to maritime industry analyst Lars Jensen, this could be possible because Maersk's current combination of effective fleet and order list leaves it with just 16,000 TEUS more than CMA CGM.
To better explain the likelihood of this change, Jensen recalled that, in July 2020, the fleet sizes of Maersk and MSC (including their order books) anticipated that MSC would snatch Maersk's position as the world's first shipping line, even though the latter had a margin of nearly 49,000 TEUS of effective capacity in favor. A year and a half later, in early 2022, MSC overtook Maersk and became the largest operator with the largest capacity.
However, it should be remembered that Maersk is implementing a transformation strategy with which it aspires to become a comprehensive logistics operator, in which capacity expansion is not the priority.
Top 10
Without considering the order book, the list of the world's 10 largest shipping lines by capacity and share in the global fleet at this time is as follows:
MSC: 5,073,462 TEU (18.8%)
Maersk: 4,127,158 TEU (15.3%)
CMA CGM: 3,497,566 TEU (12.9%)
Cosco Group: 2,935,400 TEU (10.09%)
Hapag-Lloyd: 1,856,090 TEU (6.9%)
Evergreen: 1,656,550 TEU (6.1%)
ONE: 1,618,269 TEU (6.0%)
HMM: 792,074 TEU (2.9%)
Yang Ming: 705,614 TEU (2.6%)
Zim: 590,784 (2.2%)
The Top 10 taking into consideration the total ordered capacity, the number of ships, and the percentage regarding the active fleet of each shipping line would be as follows:
MSC: 1,556,631 TEU; 122 vessels; (30.75%)
CMA CGM: 998,073 TEU; 112 vessels; (28.5%)
Cosco Group: 882,440 TEU; 48 vessels (30.1%)
ONE: 517,798 TEU; 38 vessels (32%)
Evergreen: 473,442 TEU; 49 vessels (28.6%)
Maersk: 366,600 TEU; 28 vessels; (8.9%)
Zim: 321,184 TEU; vessels; (33.5%)
Hapag-Lloyd: 312,304 TEU; 15 vessels (16.8%)
HMM: 265,027 TEU; 26 vessels (33.5%)
Yang Ming: 77,500 TEU; 5 vessels (11%)
Source: mundomaritimo.cl