In 2024, the time charter volume for container ships rose massively from USD 8.2 billion to USD 31.5 billion. Maersk is in the lead.
Maersk lost the top spot in container shipping to the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) in Geneva a few years ago. In the charter market for container ships, however, the Danes are still in first place by a wide margin among all active charterers. This is the result of a market study by shipping company Peter Döhle on industry-wide chartering activities in 2024.
According to the study, Maersk was responsible for 291 time-cargo contracts for container ships with a financial volume – total duration of the concluded charter parties in days multiplied by the daily rates – of around USD 10 billion. This corresponds to a share of around 30% of the total market volume ($31.5 billion) or 14%, as Döhle explains in his Maritime-Overview-Report.
In the previous year, Maersk was in third place behind CMA CGM and Cosco, with 101 container ship deals and a “fixing volume” of USD 0.9 billion. The shipping company’s experts attribute the jump in the ranking to the Danes’ increased newbuilding projects in cooperation with large listed tramp shipping companies.
The latter build and finance the ships, while Maersk takes them on charter on a long-term basis. In addition, new tonnage requirements in preparation for the recently formed Gemini alliance with Hapag-Lloyd are likely to have boosted Maersk’s chartering activities, according to speculation.
Number two and three in Döhle’s charterer rankings for 2024 are CMA CGM and Cosco, each with a charter volume of USD 4 billion. In the previous year, the French company still occupied the top spot – ahead of Cosco.
Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express (ONE) improved to 4th and 5th place, up from fifth and seventh in the previous year. MSC follows directly behind in sixth place, although the Aponte shipping company is known for having preferred to buy ships rather than charter them in recent years. With a market share of 20.3% in container liner shipping, MSC is a full six percentage points ahead of Maersk, the No. 2, in terms of the total fleet operated, according to Alphaliner.
Döhle’s analysis illustrates how rapidly the charter business has grown due to tonnage bottlenecks caused by the Red Sea bypass. The total volume of time cargo on a dollar basis has almost quadrupled compared to 2023 (USD 8.2 billion). “The market volume almost reached the historic high in coronavirus times,” concludes the report. According to the study, the number of container ship fixtures increased from 1,271 in the previous year to 2,030 in 2024. The average duration of employment rose from ten to seventeen months. (mph)
