Liner operators can lower their costs by benefitting from economies of scale if they deploy larger ships and – not insignificantly – are able to fill them. In terms of vessel size, ZIM has made the biggest progression during the past twelve months. Its average vessel size grew 30.8% year-on-year, thus closing the gap with the other top 10 carriers.
When looking at global fleet deployment, Alphaliner notices a significant increase in average vessel capacity on the Latin America-related trades, with four trade lanes now ranking in the top 10 routes by highest average size.
The current cellular container fleet of 30.2 Mteu counts 6,278 vessels, representing an average vessel size of 4,809 teu. This figure is up 3.5% compared to the average of 4,645 teu on 1 August 2023.
ZIM, MSC and CMA CGM are the only top 10 carriers which saw their average vessel size increase faster than the market average.
Source: Alphaliner
