1,350 ships! Container ship orders surge to a new record high.

　　The global container ship new orders have surged "against the trend," reaching a new historical high. Chinese shipbuilders have almost monopolized this wave of orders, taking on nearly 90% of this year's new ship orders.

　　Niels Rasmussen, Chief Shipping Analyst at the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), stated that despite increasing uncertainty in trade policies and declining freight rates, container ship orders continue to grow. Currently, the total number of orders exceeds 1,350 ships, with a total capacity of 11.8 million TEU.

　　In 2025, the average freight rate for global container ships is expected to decrease by about 13% year-on-year, while the United States raises import tariffs, sparking concerns about increasing trade protectionism. Nevertheless, data shows that last year, global container shipping volume still grew by 4.7% year-on-year, with new container ship orders reaching a record 4.8 million TEU.

　　Entering 2026, the container ship order wave continues in the first two months, with new orders reaching 102 ships totaling 665,000 TEU. By the end of February, the total container ship orders reached 11.8 million TEU, a year-on-year increase of 28%.

　　Rasmussen stated that currently, ultra-large vessels dominate the container ship orders, indicating a future trend of replacing medium and small ships with large ships in global route networks. Currently, orders for container ships of 12,000 TEU and above have reached 436 ships, accounting for 65% of the total orders in terms of TEU.

　　However, over the past year, the fastest-growing orders have been for medium and small ships. Orders for ships below 3,000 TEU, 3,000–6,000 TEU, and 6,000–8,000 TEU have all doubled, while orders for other ship types have only grown by about 17%.

　　BIMCO pointed out that the orders for the above three types of medium and small container ships account for only 16% of the existing fleet capacity, and 29% of the capacity in these three segments comes from old ships over 20 years old. Therefore, in the coming years, the dismantling of old ships may match or even exceed the delivery of new ships.

　　On the other hand, the increase in orders for ultra-large container ships is also significantly changing the ownership structure of the container ship fleet. In the early 2020s, non-operating owners (NOO) controlled 43% of the global container ship fleet capacity, but now this proportion has dropped to 36%. Considering that the container ships under construction by non-operating owners account for only 24% of the current orders, the proportion of fleet capacity controlled by non-operating owners will further decrease in the future.

　　It is understood that currently, the vast majority of container ship orders are being built by Chinese shipbuilders. According to a report released by Clarkson, as of February this year, among the top 10 individual shipyards in global container ship orders, 8 are from China, with the top seven all occupied by Chinese shipbuilders, namely New Times Shipbuilding (71 ships, 4 million CGT), Zhoushan Changhong International (70 ships, 3.7 million CGT), Jiangsu New Yangzi Shipbuilding (97 ships, 3.6 million CGT), Hengli Heavy Industry (56 ships, 3.2 million CGT), Jiangnan Shipbuilding (41 ships, 2.7 million CGT), Huangpu Wenchong (108 ships, 2.5 million CGT), and Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding (47 ships, 2.5 million CGT). South Korea's HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (38 ships, 2.3 million CGT) and HD Hyundai Samho (42 ships, 2.2 million CGT) rank eighth and ninth, respectively, while Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (28 ships, 2 million CGT) ranks tenth.

　　Chinese shipbuilders have also almost taken all container ship orders this year. Clarkson's statistics show that out of a total of 151 ships with 870,000 TEU container ship new orders so far this year, Chinese shipbuilders have taken on 123 ships with 780,000 TEU, with a market share close to 90%. The remaining 28 new ship orders were taken by South Korea (20 ships), India (6 ships), and Japan (2 ships), and among these 28 orders, only 4 ships taken by South Korean shipbuilders are large ships over 10,000 TEU, while the rest are feeder ships below 3,000 TEU.

　　Currently, container ship orders account for more than 35% of the existing fleet, the highest level since March 2010 (36.16%). The persistently high order volume has raised concerns in the industry about future market capacity surplus.

　　BIMCO states that the current orders of up to 11.8 million TEU will be delivered and operated before 2030, and even if all ships aged 22 years and older are dismantled before 2030, the global fleet size will still maintain an average annual growth of about 6.1%. This may bring considerable supply-demand balance pressure to shipping companies.

　　Last year, with the concentrated delivery of new ships ordered during the 2021-2022 order boom, the number of container ships in the fleet surpassed 7,000 for the first time in November, just 37 months after reaching the 6,000 milestone in September 2022, marking the fastest growth rate in history. Looking ahead, Clarkson expects the container ship fleet to rapidly surpass the 8,000 mark in the coming years.