Industry leaders have placed multi-billion dollar orders for the world's biggest vessels to meet growing demand in Europe and the United States for Chinese manufactured goods, squeezing out smaller players.
The top 20 container shipping firms, led by Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), controlled 84 percent of the liner freight market in the last 12 months, up from around 70 percent a decade ago and the highest on record, Alphaliner said in its weekly newsletter.
"The recent failures of start-up carriers, the Containership Company and Yanghai Shipping Co, have highlighted the high barriers to entry for new companies that may be planning to join the container shipping market," it said.
"Unless new entrants have a strong financial backing, it will be increasingly difficult for new carriers to compete against larger and more established industry players."
Rate War Fears
The Containership Company suspended its shipments in April, while Korean firm Yanghai Shipping shut its operations earlier this month due to the difficult economic environment.
Smaller container firms have warned that a move by industry leaders to flood the market with mega ships could spark a "rate war" similar to 2009 when the market plummeted and most firms fell into the red in one of the industry's worst downturns.
Maersk, the world's top container shipper with 15 percent market share, this year ordered 10 of the world's largest container vessels for $1.9 billion and exercised an option for 10 more.
Due for delivery from 2013, Maersk's 18,000 20-foot equivalent unit container vessels would surpass the current largest box ship of 15,000 TEUs, also owned by the company.
About 50 mega container ships with 10,000 TEU capacity or more are expected to be delivered this year, making up nearly half of the total new capacity of 1.35 million TEUs due for 2011, Alphaliner said. The orderbook showed 59 mega ships for 2012. (Reuters)
