MSC has widened its container fleet market share gap with Maersk, according to industry analysts Alphaliner.
The two leading container carriers displayed notably different market share trends in the month of May.
Following the explosive growth in its fleet seen from 2020 onwards, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) last month hit a new record in terms of market share, operating 21.5% of total global container capacity.
No carrier has ever previously achieved such a quota, with the only other carrier to come close, Maersk, achieving 19.3% of the market in 2018.
Geneva-based MSC continues to eat into the market share of other lines, and it was the only top-10 carrier to reach a high in its market share this year. The world’s largest container carrier has effectively doubled its market share since 2010.
At the other end of the scale, A.P. Moller-Maersk has adopted a very different strategy, and May saw the carrier languish at its lowest market share in twenty years. Tonnage operated by the group represented just 13.7% of the total container fleet, the lowest point since the Danish group bought P&O Nedlloyd in 2005.
Maersk’s deliberate decision to cap its fleet at 4.1–4.3 Mteu from early 2024, combined with the relentless growth in the overall container fleet, has condemned the company to a falling market share. The Danish carrier said that is would prioritise decarbonised fleet replacement and integrated logistics to achieve its strategic and financial objectives.
Elsewhere in the top-10, CMA CGM maintained a firm market share, holding 12.5% of the global fleet, only marginally down from the carrier’s peak of 12.9% in 2023.
Source: Alphaliner
