According to shipping analysts Alphaliner, ZIM has closed the gap between itself and major ocean carriers when it comes to average vessel size.
In its latest newsletter, Alphaliner stresses that shipping lines can reduce their costs by taking advantage of economies of scale when deploying larger ships, provided they can also ensure these ships are fully loaded.
“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,” says the company.
Alphaliner has also observed a marked rise in average vessel capacity in trades linked to Latin America, with four trade lanes now among the top 10 routes globally by highest average vessel size.
The shipping analysts add that the current global cellular container fleet, consisting of 6,278 vessels, totals 30.2 million TEU, resulting in an average vessel size of 4,809 TEU. This represents a 3.5% increase from the average size of 4,645 TEU recorded on 1 August 2023.
Among the top 10 carriers, ZIM, MSC, and CMA CGM were the only ones to see their average vessel size grow faster than the market average.
Photo: Daniel Ramirez from Honolulu, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons