The Europe – Far East trade is still the one container shipping companies operate on the most, according to Alphaliner.
The market analyst points out that this route has managed to absorb most of the new cargo capacity deployed globally by liners over the last 12 months.
Considering that global capacity has grown by 8.9% (2.62 million TEUs) over the past year to 32.1 million TEUs, routes connecting the Old Continent to the Far East witnessed an 11.7% increase in available capacity. Basically, 817,000 TEUs have been added to the fleet, or 31% of all new capacity added globally since May 2024.
If we look at May 2025 and compare it with May 2023, the growth in capacity stands at an impressive 40.8% on this trade. This is obviously due to the Red Sea crisis and ships being rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope.
In just two years, carriers have added 2.26 million TEUs of extra capacity between the Far East and Europe, bringing the total fleet to 7.8 million TEUs on this route.
In short, 24.4% of global shipping is now employed in this trade, which continues to be the most important route for the liner fleet.
The trade with the highest percentage growth, however, concerns scheduled services with Latin America. Over the last 12 months, 606,500 TEUs have been added to these routes, with a fleet growth of 15.6%.
Last month, 14% of the global container fleet was used in services to and from Latin America.
Translation by Giles Foster
