The Europe – Far East trade continues to dominate global liner shipping, both in scale and growth, according to Alphaliner.
According to Alphaliner data, over the past twelve months, the capacity of the global container fleet grew by 8.9%, reaching a total of 32.1 million TEU. During this period, 2.62 million TEU of new capacity was added -nearly a third of which was absorbed by the Far East–Europe route alone.
Furthermore, vessel capacity on the Far East and Europe trade lane increased by 11.7% year-on-year, with 817,000 additional TEU slots deployed since May 2024. This route now accounts for 24.4% of the global container fleet, up from 20.8% just two years ago.
In that time, carriers have added 2.26 million TEU of extra capacity, bringing the total fleet on this corridor to 7.8 million TEU, a significant 40.8% increase compared to May 2023. This surge is largely due to the Red Sea crisis and the widespread rerouting of vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, Alphaliner explained.
However, while the Far East–Europe lane leads in absolute numbers, Latin America-related liner services recorded the strongest percentage growth. In addition, over the past year, 606,500 TEU of new capacity was added to Latin America trades, marking a 15.6% increase well above the global average.
As of last month, 14% of the world’s container fleet was operating on routes to and from Latin America, confirming a trend already visible in the previous year.
