The world’s largest container line MSC continues to get bigger and now holds the most dominant position any company has ever held in the market, according to Seatrade Maritime.
According to analyst Alphaliner MSC has added 400,000 teu in capacity to its fleet alone this year. The company’s operated fleet now stands up at 19.8% of global container ship capacity, the highest ever held by a single line. It’s share of the global fleet was up one percentage point on 18.8% from end July 2023.
Maersk, while retaining its rank as the world’s second largest container line, has seen its market share decline over the 12 months dropping 0.8% to 14.4% at end July this year compared to 15.2% at end July 2023.
Third place CMA CGM also saw decline in its share of the fleet from 12.8% at end July 2023 to 12.4% at end July 2024.
Maersk is set to slide further in market share as both MSC and CMA CGM have much larger newbuild orderbooks. MSC has 1.2 million teu of capacity on order equivalent to 20% of existing fleet and is set to cross the 20% market share threshold soon. CMA CGM has 1.15 million teu of newbuilding capacity on order equivalent to 30.3% of its current fleet. By contrast Maersk’s newbuild orderbook 374,966 teu or 8.8% of its existing fleet with a target fleet range of 4.1 – 4.3 million teu.
The 10 top container lines operate some 83.9% of the global fleet of boxships in terms of capacity.