Container shipping order book has tripled in the last 1,5 year
Container shipping order book has tripled in the last 1,5 year
Container shipping order book has tripled in the last 1,5 year
The order book of worldwide container shipping has more than tripled in a year and a half to 6.5 million TEU of new transport capacity. That corresponds to 26% of the current capacity. According to the international shipowners’ association Bimco, the order book for container shipping has not been this large in the past fifteen years. According to analyst Niels Rasmussen, 6.2 million TEU, the lion’s share of the total order book, will be shipped before 2025.
In October 2020, the order book still contained only two million TEU. A wave of orders started in the second half of that year, when it became clear that the corona pandemic was leading to a sharp increase in demand for container transport. This increased further last year, partly thanks to the enormous profits of the container carriers.
Issues with Congestion
Rasmussen expects that the effective capacity of the current container fleet will increase by about two million TEU in the coming years, even without new construction. “The congestion problems that still exist will eventually be resolved,” he says. He therefore assumes that the total supply of transmission capacity will grow by about eight million TEU until 2025. That is about a third of the current capacity.

Rogier Vervoort is co-owner of Trident Container Leasing B.V. With 30 years of experience in the container business, he is a specialist in container leasing and trading.
Container shipping order book has tripled in the last 1,5 year
The order book of worldwide container shipping has more than tripled in a year and a half to 6.5 million TEU of new transport capacity. That corresponds to 26% of the current capacity. According to the international shipowners’ association Bimco, the order book for container shipping has not been this large in the past fifteen years. According to analyst Niels Rasmussen, 6.2 million TEU, the lion’s share of the total order book, will be shipped before 2025.
In October 2020, the order book still contained only two million TEU. A wave of orders started in the second half of that year, when it became clear that the corona pandemic was leading to a sharp increase in demand for container transport. This increased further last year, partly thanks to the enormous profits of the container carriers.
Issues with Congestion
Rasmussen expects that the effective capacity of the current container fleet will increase by about two million TEU in the coming years, even without new construction. “The congestion problems that still exist will eventually be resolved,” he says. He therefore assumes that the total supply of transmission capacity will grow by about eight million TEU until 2025. That is about a third of the current capacity.

Perry Schoenaker is Sales & Rental Manager at Trident. He is a master in devising creative solutions for our shipping company and trading clients.