The world’s leading liner shipping companies once again significantly expanded their overall capacity, with Hapag-Lloyd also recording particularly strong growth.
Overall, the major carriers reported global fleet growth of 10.3%. As with all key figures, the No. 1 in container shipping, MSC, led by Gianluigi Aponte, is leading the way.
The Geneva-based shipping company will be operating entirely without a partner from February, following its separation from Maersk. Aponte had prepared for this over the past four years with an unprecedented expansion of the fleet.
Last year alone, 692,000 TEU slots were added, which corresponds to a growth of 12.3% above the market average. This included 50 newbuildings (548,500 TEU) and numerous older ships from the second-hand market.
Hapag-Lloyd has grown by 18.7% in 2024
MSC now has a total transport capacity of 6.3 million TEU. The gap to Maersk, the world’s second-largest liner operator, has now grown to 1.9 million TEU. The Danes have “only” added 7.3%.
As is well known, Maersk is joining forces with Hamburg-based Hapag-Lloyd, which currently has 2.3 million TEU, also from February this year. A few weeks ago, both shipping companies ordered further newbuildings in parallel.
Hapag-Lloyd has grown by 367,000 TEU or 18.7% in 2024. In percentage terms, this is the third-largest increase among the twelve largest shipping companies after PIL (+29.9%) and ZIM (+26%).
