MSC closes in on 20% share of container ship market

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.

“Only Maersk has come close to dominating the market in the same way. The latter reached a peak market share of 19.4% in 2018 but has seen its market participation decline in each of the five consecutive years since then,” Alphaliner commented in its weekly report.

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.

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“This will inevitably curb its market share at a time of rapid growth by competitors, notably MSC and CMA CGM. Five top 10 carriers now have orderbooks bigger than Maersk’s,” Alphaliner said.

The 10 top container lines operate some 83.9% of the global fleet of boxships in terms of capacity.