Container carriers in the slowing US import and export trades are exercising increased discipline, maintaining capacity levels rather than introducing new vessels in an attempt to secure a larger share of the market.
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Top 40 Container Carriers
Top 40 Container Carriers
The JOC regularly ranks the Top 40 container carriers in the US trade by import, export, and total volume using trade data from PIERS.
The list evolves each year, and reflects changes in the US economy and container trade, as carriers jostle for position and import and export volume rises or falls.
Top Five Ocean Carriers
The Top 5 US carriers are Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co., CMA CGM/APL, Hapag-Lloyd, and Evergreen Line. With the exception of Evergreen Line, the Top 5 US carriers are also in the Top 5 for global fleet operators. The carriers are organized into global vessel-sharing agreements. Those currently in effect are the 2M Alliance of MSC and Maersk, the Ocean Alliance of CMA CGM, APL, Cosco Shipping, Evergreen Line, and OOCL, and the Transport High Efficiency (THE) Alliance of Ocean Network Express, Yang Ming Line, and Hapag-Lloyd.
Carriers have had to adjust to a new reality of growth following the Great Recession (2007 to 2009), when the GDP multiplier, which refers to the rate of global container trade growth as a multiple of global GDP expansion, fell from 2.2 to around 1.1.
This seismic shift occurred just as the industry was absorbing a surge of new capacity and carriers ordered and put into service mega-ships in excess of 20,000 TEU. That led to severe overcapacity that drove down rates and ate into carrier profitability and generated losses, culminating in the August 2016 collapse of Hanjin Shipping, which at the time was the world’s seventh-largest container line.
Previous Ocean Carrier Rankings
Top 40 Container Carriers US Import and Export Trades, January-December 2018
Top 40 Container Carriers US Import and Export Trades, January-June 2018
Top 40 Container Carriers US Import and Export Trades, January-September 2017
Top 40 Container Carriers US Import and Export Trades, January-June 2017
Top 40 Container Carriers US Import and Export Trades, January-March 2017
Top 40 Container Carriers, US Import and Export Trades, January-December 2016
Top 40 Container Carriers US Import and Export Trades, January-September 2016
Top 40 Container Carriers US Import and Export Trades, January-June 2016
Top 40 Container Carriers US Import and Export Trades, January-March 2016
Top 40 Container Carriers, US Import and Export Trades, January-December 2015
Top 40 Container Carriers in US Export Trade, January-December 2014
Top 40 Container Carriers in US Import Trade, January-December 2014
Top 40 Container Carriers in US Export Trade, January-September 2014
Top 40 Container Carriers in US Import Trade, January-September 2014
Top 40 Container Carriers in US Export Trade, 2013
Top 40 Container Carriers in US Import Trade, 2013
Top 40 Carriers in US Containerized Trade in the First Half of 2013
Top 40 Carriers in US Containerized Trade in 2012
Press Releases
Special Coverage
News & Analysis
19 Aug 2019
Carrier market share in the trans-Pacific is not expected to change much in the next few months, in part because carriers will manage capacity by blanking individual sailings and deploying extra-loader vessels to handle import surges.
15 Aug 2019
It was a modest second quarter result, but Maersk Line continues to improve its profitability by improving reliability and resisting any temptation to chase market share.
14 Aug 2019
Evergreen Marine has plunged deeper into the mega-ship operating space, ordering another 11 ships in addition to the 11 that are already being built and delivered.
12 Jul 2019
Carriers are going beyond setting up logistics arms and instead making the end-to-end reach a full company play rather than standalone attempt to offer the higher value and margin services as the NVOs they compete and partner with.
04 Jul 2019
Carriers and shippers alike must adapt to the new realities of a container shipping market in which only a handful of large players control the vast majority of capacity.
28 Jun 2019
Spot rates in the eastbound trans-Pacific this week got a pop from the pending July 1 GRIs, but economists are predicting a slow-growth year for the US economy, and carriers’ only hope to keep pricing from declining this peak season is to manage capacity through blank sailings.
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