Maersk is preparing to move away from its long-standing fleet capacity limit as CEO Vincent Clerc looks to expand the company’s containership fleet, Splash 247 reports. For years, Maersk said its fleet would stay around 4m–4.4m teu. New ships were mainly used to replace older vessels. But its operated fleet has now grown above 4.7m teu, while CMA CGM is also expanding quickly.
After its second-quarter results, Maersk said it would “ensure that we have the capacity to grow”. This suggests the company now needs more ships to support its business.
Linerlytica said Maersk’s fleet has grown by only about 2% a year since 2018, compared with 11.7% for several major competitors.
Drewry managing director Philip Damas expects Maersk to focus on replacing older ships and adding vessels for growing regional trades. He also said the carrier’s earlier cautious approach could help it avoid a serious overcapacity problem in 2027–2029.
Alphaliner analyst Jan Tiedemann said Maersk has already been chartering ships “very aggressively”. He believes the company ordered too few large ships and did so too late. Tiedemann also expects Maersk to need more fleet renewal in the early 2030s. He said the carrier could order large LNG dual-fuel ships later this year, with deliveries possible in 2029–2031.
Maersk has not yet commented on its future fleet plans.
