Container ships sail full steam ahead. Market monopolization continues until 2030 [REPORT]

The global containership fleet exceeded 630, with a capacity of 5.08 million TEUs in December 2025. New orders from COSCO and Hapag-Lloyd, signed in early December, and ships entering the market between 2026 and 2030 will revolutionize maritime shipping. An additional fleet of approximately 1 million TEU will sail annually.

Ports and container terminals must prepare for mega-container ships, new challenges, and operational plans. Large methanol-powered containerships will sail onto the oceans, such as the recently launched ONE Satisfaction (IMO: 1023035). The ship is 336 meters long and 51 meters wide. We wrote about it here.

One of the largest ships sailing between Asia and Europe is the ONE Innovation (IMO: 9939137). The container ship has a capacity of up to 24,136 TEU. The ship is almost 400 meters long and 61 meters wide. We wrote about this ship here.

Feeder vessels will also be getting larger. As early as 2026, a noticeable shift in ocean services and short shipping will be noticeable. The latest issue of the Alphaliner Newsletter highlights the unprecedented scale of changes in container ship fleets.

A comparison of the development of container fleets over the past quarter of the 21st century clearly demonstrates that the globalization of the economy and the decomposition of supplier and customer markets would not have been possible without the technological revolution in ocean container transport.

Top 10 Liner Operators. Source: Alphaliner. Graphics: Maritime Analytica

During this period, the consumer population on all continents increased by over two billion people. And the development of container terminals reached its peak. Investments in the BCT and GCT container terminals also aligned with this trend. Baltic Hub hit the mark by building Terminal T3. Prospects for the container terminal in Świnoujście are emerging.

Boxes Conquered the World

For 25 years, container terminals around the world have been building their transshipment capacity. They modernized ship handling systems and facilities, storage yards, vehicle handling, and intermodal services. These actions were largely driven by the dynamic development of ocean container connections and the increasing dependence of developed economies on supplies from Asia.

“My team and I decided to look back at a quarter of a century of liner shipping from 2000 to 2025. The pace and scale with which the container transport industry has changed during this period is astonishing!” emphasizes Jan Tiedemann, Shipping Analyst, Alphaliner, ‘VP Liner’ at AXSMarine, reporting on the latest market research results.

In 2000, A.P. Moller-Maersk was the largest operator with an impressive fleet of approximately 700,000 TEU vessels,” recalls an Alphaliner analyst. Today, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company is number one, with ten times more container ships than the record-breaking achievements of the operators of the time. The top 20 ports handled a combined 109 million TEU in 2000, reaching 424 million TEU in 2024, and likely even more in 2025, Tiedemann predicted.

The AXSMarine expert’s alarmist tone is justified by investor activity. The end of 2025 ended with an incredible number of contracts for a series of container ships. In mid-December, Linerlytica analysts estimated the order book at 633 vessels with a capacity of 5.08 million TEU. Previous records for building mega-portfolios were achieved at 4.74 million TEU in 2021 and 4.77 million TEU in 2024.

 

Source: Linerlityca, 2025

The Dragon State’s Appetite for Containerships

Chinese shipyards are the dominant players in the shipbuilding market for new container ships. The shipbuilding industry in the “Dragon State” has secured a 72% share of the order book, measured by vessel capacity in TEU. A record year was already brewing in the summer. Furthermore, it’s worth noting that shipowners are developing fleets based on ships with engines that can run on alternative fuels. BIMCO reported in the summer that, at the end of August 2025, its order book included 534 container ships that, once launched, will be capable of running on alternative fuels. These represent 53% of ordered ships and 77% of their TEU capacity.

In the second half of 2025, there was a noticeable rush among some shipowners to contract container ships at Chinese shipyards. Interest in new ships shows no signs of slowing down. The only visible limitation is the availability of construction dates, reports Splash, citing the opinion of a broker from Braemar.

Braemar presented an alarming assessment of the market situation in its latest container market report, published in mid-December of this year. A record 5.08 million TEU was achieved following the announcement of MPC Container Ships’ contract for six 3,700-TEU vessels with Taizhou Sanfu Ship Engineering.

As a result, the ratio of container ship order backlog to the fleet in service is currently 33%, said Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analytics Manager at BIMCO, in an interview with Splash. Gouveia stated that he “has concerns about the massive tonnage overcapacity in liner shipping.”

“Considering the supply-demand balance, the most concerning factor is the size of the container order backlog, especially since the container sector will experience the largest reduction in demand if vessels return to normal routes via the Red Sea and Suez Canal,” Gouveia said. He believes that the supply of cargo space in the container market will outweigh demand for the next five years.

Source Alphaliner. Graph: Global Maritime Hub

Three players hold 98.5% of the container ship order book

Currently, China, Korea, and Japan account for 98.5% of the container ship order book. The global container ship order book is currently the largest in history, with over 1,000 new builds and over 10 MTEU on order. Chinese shipyards, with a contract portfolio of 7.36 million TEU, have captured 73.7% of the market. Korean shipbuilders have secured the production of vessels with a total capacity of 2.04 million TEU and a 20.5% market share. Japan’s shipbuilding industry secured only 0.43 million TEU and 4.3% market share, according to December data from Alphaliner.

The editor of “Global Maritime Hub” notes that only 29 new container ships in the global order book will come from a few shipyards outside the three largest countries. Shipyards in Asia, Europe, and the United States play the “grandfather” role in this game. Taiwan’s shipyards stand out, as they have contracts for 16 vessels. Turkey has secured four vessels, shipyards in the United States will build three vessels, and India is fulfilling a contract for two container ships. Several very small container ships are being built at shipyards in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

The placement of container ship contracts outside the “Big Three” shipyards is justified by non-commercial reasons. For example, two Turkish vessels, each with a capacity of 4,012 TEU, are being built at a shipyard with a financial tie to the shipowner. The American contracts are clearly justified by the requirements of the Jones Act, which requires short sea shipping between American ports and domestic services to service vessels built in the US.

Summarizing the last 25 years of container shipping’s development, Alphaliner emphasizes that the fleet has expanded and the structure of leading ocean carriers has changed. Although the industry dates back to 1956, when the converted tanker IDEAL X was transformed into the world’s first container ship and embarked on a domestic US voyage from Newark to Houston, it has been in the last 25 years that the sector has achieved unprecedented growth.

“Over the last quarter-century, the number of vessels has increased net from 2,622 to 7,492 (nearly 400 million dwt, over 33.23 million TEU). The average vessel size has increased from approximately 1,700 to approximately 4,500 TEU,” notes Alphaliner. Considering that almost 11 million TEU have been contracted, today’s order book is more than twice the size of the global fleet in 2000.