Top 12 Largest Shipping Carriers in 2023

The World's 12 Largest Container Shipping Companies by Teu Capacity Change in 2023

    

Source: Alphaliner

The past year was still a profitable year for the container shipping market, especially the stable contract rates and strong transatlantic market boosted the carnival of container shipping companies.

This year, many carriers continued to expand their fleets taking advantage of the unusually strong market winds. The capacity scale of the world's top twelve container shipping companies has changed. Who is the real "winner"?

Top 12 Largest Shipping Carriers in 2023

Source: Alphaliner

It can be seen from the table that during 2022, MSC, Evergreen and ZIM will each rise one place in Alphaliner's container shipping companies rankings.

MSC Overtakes Maersk As World's Largest Container Line

MSC overtakes Maersk as world's largest container line in January 2022 and has continued to extend its lead. After adding 411,000 teu (+10.7%) to its fleet capacity in 2021, MSC was again the most aggressive expander among the major carriers last year, adding a further 321,500 teu (+7.5%).

It is estimated that for a long time to come, MSC's top position will remain solid. The company's order for 124 vessels stands at 1.73 Mteu, the largest order in the industry to date. MSC alone has 14 ultra-large ships and 22 neo-panamax ships on order for delivery in 2023, with some deliveries delayed until 2024. Meanwhile, the Geneva-based container line is sure to ramp up its capacity significantly again this year.

And Maersk lost 617,00 teu of capacity in 2022 as the company was forced to redeliver a significant amount of chartered tonnage. The ships are either second-hand or fixed to competitors who are willing to pay higher charter rates or accept longer charter periods.

ZIM Significantly Expands Fleet Size Through Chartering Business

ZIM has been exceptionally active on the charter market this year, after ending its partnership with the 2M alliance on the Asia-Mediterranean and Asia-CNA routes, the container line must maintain a strong presence on these routes by acquiring additional tonnage.

Proportionally, the Haifa-based container line topped the top twelve with a staggering 120,000 teu (+29%) of fleet growth. ZIM's fleet size growth is almost driven by its charter business, including three 11,900teu long-term contract new ships.

It is not surprising that ZIM is the most "asset-light" company among large container shipping companies. More than 95% of its fleet is realized through charter business, and 100% of the ships in its order will also be purchased through charter.

Evergreen Orders Upwards of 20 New Ships

In 2022, an ambitious new construction project pushed Evergreen to sixth place, up one place. Evergreen orders upwards of 20 new ships last year, including seven ultra-large ships for Asia-Europe routes.

It is worth mentioning that Evergreen directly obtained 217,500 teu of shipping capacity from the shipyard, which also allowed it to increase its fleet proportion by 12.5%.

The fleet size of COSCO SHIPPING Container Lines (including OOCL) has been reduced for two consecutive years. Its operating capacity also fell by 2.1%, after reducing its capacity size by 3.2% in 2021. However, COSCO SHIPPING is sitting on the industry's second-largest vessel orderbook of 88.5teu.

In addition to COSCO and Maersk, ONE (-0.8%) and HMM (-0.4%) also slightly reduced the number of fleets.

Hapag-Lloyd's 1.8% growth rate was below average; Wan Hai's growth rate (4.1%) was in line with the market level; Yang Ming Shipping orders upwards 5 new ships of 11,860teu, bringing its fleet growth to 6.8% %.

Compared with individual operators, the overall global container fleet grew by 4.1% last year and currently stands at 26.40 Mteu.