The world’s largest ocean carriers are spending heavily on new container ships, and the pace of ordering is not slowing.
Global container ship orders have climbed to 16.2 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), equal to 46.5 percent of the existing fleet and the highest share recorded since 2009, according to Linerlytica data published Monday.
The ratio moved again this week after Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), the biggest container shipping company by tonnage, was reported to have ordered another 20 ships expected to carry 24,000 TEUs of capacity. The ultra-large orders will reportedly be built by Hengli Heavy Industries in China, adding 480,000 TEUs to its arsenal. The batch takes MSC’s orders above 20,000 TEUs at Hengli alone to 62 vessels, with no value or delivery schedule reported.
Around the time Linerlytica reported on MSC’s massive haul, it was unveiled that South Korea-based HMM signed a contract for eight 13,000-TEU ships.
Roughly 1,000 newbuildings of 8.5 million TEUs are due to enter the market in 2027 and 2028, according to container shipping research firm Alphaliner, while this fall’s orders deliver mainly in 2029 and 2030.
BIMCO’s September outlook has the fleet growing 9 percent in 2027, with effective supply rising 5 percent to 6 percent against ship demand growth of 0.5 percent to 4.5 percent, depending on whether the situation at the Strait of Hormuz normalizes.
Maersk supplied the clearest break with recent restraint when it confirmed last month that it had ordered 26 dual-fuel ships with a capacity of 18,600 TEUs for delivery in 2029 and 2030. The new vessels will be among the largest in the Maersk fleet, as the carrier prior to the order had not followed competitors in the jump to ultra-large container vessels with a capacity of 24,000 TEUs.
The Danish carrier described the order as part of its ongoing fleet renewal program.
In a LinkedIn post after the confirmation, container shipping expert Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime, calculated that the newest order lifted Maersk’s orderbook from 25 percent of its fleet to 35 percent.
According to Jensen, the size of the Maersk orders is important in that the ships are “more versatile in deployment across several trades going forward” than the 24,000-TEU vessels.
Weeks prior, in an August earnings call, a JPMorgan analyst asked Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc whether an industry orderbook that was closer to 40 percent could move toward the 60 percent highs in 2009. In response, Clerc stressed the need for more capacity.
“I still think that the orderbook reflects a very optimistic view on the world, but I think so less and less as long as this trend continues,” Clerc said. “Because if I have a total market growing 4 percent but the head-haul demand is growing 7 to 8 percent, I need 7 to 8 percent capacity more every year just to be able to carry stuff.”
On the call, Clerc said vessel utilization stood at 96 percent, noting that head-haul volumes out of the Far East had soared roughly 25 percent in just three years.
The mass ordering is concentrated at the top of the vessel size range, with BIMCO counting 436 ships of 12,000 TEUs or more as 65 percent of all capacity on order in a February assessment.
Other major carriers are building their fleets at a large scale. CMA CGM has been reported by Linerlytica and supply chain publication The Loadstar to have ordered 12 24,000-TEU vessels from China’s Yangzijiang Shipbuilding. The ships are scheduled for delivery across 2029 and 2030, which the French carrier has not publicly confirmed.
Including this reported deal, CMA CGM’s 2026 ordering adds up to 32 ships and roughly 365,000 TEUs.
Cosco Shipping ordered 18 ships in September, with Alphaliner citing that the orderbook now represents 52 percent of its current fleet—the largest ratio among the top 10 carriers. Twelve of them are megamax-class vessels that can carry 21,700 TEUs each. In total, the purchase will cost Cosco roughly $3 billion.
Across 2026, Cosco announced 48 newbuilding contracts worth approximately $8 billion.
The middle tier of the container shipping market is turning to South Korean shipyards to build a smaller ship class. HMM’s contract, announced by HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering on Tuesday, covers eight LNG dual-fuel ships of 13,000 TEUs worth about $1.42 billion for delivery by 2029, lifting its ships of the class on order to 20 after a first tranche of 12 last October. Citing Alphaliner data, Jensen said the additions take HMM’s orderbook to 32 percent of fleet, still the third-smallest percentage among the 16 largest lines.
Additionally, Yang Ming signed for six ships of 13,650 TEUs at Hanwha Ocean on Sept. 2, taking its backlog to 24 vessels totaling 318,500 TEUs.
Hapag-Lloyd is running the opposite strategy to the ordering carriers and hinging on an acquisition instead. The German carrier’s half-year report puts its orderbook at 32 newbuildings totaling 349,000 TEUs, about 14 percent of fleet capacity and the lowest ratio among the major lines.
But growth rests on the more than $4 billion pending acquisition of ZIM, which has been challenged by the Israeli government.
Asked on an earnings call in August of what would happen if the deal fell through, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen gave no alternative plan.