Europe-Far East remains by far the largest liner trade!

by Editor

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The capacity of the global container fleet increased 8.9% during the past twelve months to 32.1 Mteu. No fewer than 2.62 Mteu of new teu slots were added to the fleet in this period.

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Once again, most of the new capacity was absorbed by the Far East–Europe trade, which saw overall vessel capacity up 11.7% year-on-year. Another 817,000 teu slots were deployed on the route, representing 31% of all the newly added fleet capacity since May 2024.

When comparing the May 2025 and May 2023 figures for this trade, the capacity increase stands at an impressive 40.8%. This is of course due to the Red Sea crisis and the deviation of ships around the Cape of Good Hope.

In just two years, the carriers have added 2.26 Mteu of extra capacity between the Far East and Europe, bringing the total fleet on this route to 7.8 Mteu. With 24.4% of the global fleet now trading there, it is by far the largest shipping lane for the liner fleet. Two years ago, the percentage stood at 20.8%.

Confirming a trend already visible last year, the strongest fleet growth percentagewise was in Latin America-related liner services.

During the past twelve months, 606,500 teu slots were added there, resulting in an above market average fleet growth of 15.6%. Last month, 14% of the global container fleet was used in services to and from Latin America.

Source: Alphaliner