Container carriers have markedly boosted their dependence on owned tonnage through the current decade, trimming their vulnerability to a charter segment that has often been squeezed by scarce ship supply.

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Sea-Intelligence reports that worldwide operators now hold 63% of their active fleet capacity, compared with 43% in January 2020. Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), HMM, and Wan Hai have shifted furthest from chartered vessels, with Wan Hai now running a fully owned fleet.

On the other side, Hapag-Lloyd has kept its ownership ratio nearly unchanged since early 2020, while Maersk, COSCO, and ZIM have made only slight tweaks, according to the analyst.

This transformation unfolded during a stretch of exceptional volatility and profitability in liner shipping, covering the COVID-era freight surge, severe port logjams, and later service interruptions in the Red Sea. Sea-Intelligence contends that owning ships gave carriers a key edge in gaining market share during an era of record earnings.

When charter availability tightens, lines relying on third-party vessels encounter steeper hire rates and fewer options to add capacity. In contrast, those with owned fleets enjoy more command over routing, fleet growth, and service expansion.

MSC’s aggressive buying of secondhand ships and its large orderbook have underpinned its climb to the top of the global container industry. The wider pattern indicates that many operators now treat vessel ownership less as a pure asset play and more as a safeguard for operational agility in a market where charter tonnage can vanish swiftly.

Source: IndexBox Market Intelligence Platform