Maersk Line leads in global shipping trade

Maersk Line continues to lead the global container shipping trade, with a market share of 16.4 per cent, according to the latest statistics produced by Paris-based AXS Marine.

As of the 20th of June, there were 6,004 ships active globally on liner trades, with a total capacity of 12.4 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) and 169.6 million TDW (dead weight tonnage) for liquid cargo. To the above figures are included 4,485 fully cellular ships for another 11.6 million TEU.

The total existing cellular fleet for all sizes and positions stands at 4,506 ships for 11.6 millionTEU.

There are 11 cellular ships over 1,000 TEU for 22,630 TEU, which are inactive – either awaiting employment or damaged.

According to data from AXS Marine, APM-Maersk tops the list of container liners, controlling, or operating 546 ships with a total capacity of 2.02 million TEU. The company's orderbook includes 82 ships of 396,585 TEU, which represents 19.5 per cent of the Maersk's capacity in terms of TEU. Also, the company charters 351 out of 546 ships.

The second largest liner is Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), which has a fleet of 401 ships with a total capacity of 1.30 million TEU.

MSC owns 220 of these vessels, while the remaining 181 are chartered.

Its orderbook stands at 54 vessels with a total capacity of 598,693 TEU, which is 45.9 per cent of its capacity.

However, the most aggressive company in the new-building scene appears to be China's Cosco Container Lines, which has on order 73 ships with capacity totalling 527,803 TEU, which represents 115.9 per cent of its current capacity that now stands at 455,541 TEU. This is divided into 148 ships, 98 of which are owned and the rest chartered. Cosco is the sixth largest liner in the world.

The rest of the first five places are covered by the CMA-CGM Group, which comes in third place with 391 ships providing 933,036 TEU of total capacity, Evergreen Line with 180 ships for a 630,692 TEU total capacity, and Hapag-Lloyd with 140 ships having a 507,216 TEU total capacity.

Out of the first five liners, CMA-CGM has the most aggressive expansion plan of 628,467 TEU from 77 ships expected to be delivered from shipyards.

This figure is 67.4 per cent of its current capacity.

Maersk Line is a subsidiary of the Maersk Group headquartered in Copenhagen, and has a presence in more than 125 countries with more than 500 container vessels and more than 1.9 million containers. Maersk Line's feeder vessels, trucks and dedicated trains offer door-to-door services.

Apart from container shipping activities, the group is also involved in logistics and terminal operations, tankers, oil and gas activities, retail, shipyards and manufacturing activities.

Eivind Kolding, the head of Maersk Line, said the company was not ruling out takeovers and is keeping a close eye on Hapag-Lloyd units. He was sceptical that Hapag-Lloyd would sell for the price tag of up to €5 billion (Dh28.6bn) that was being talked about in the markets.


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