A strong year of growth for the container market seen in 2025: Report

With August logging the highest ever monthly figure for TEU volumes handled worldwide, 2025 is shaping up to be a second strong year of growth for the container market, as per an Alphaliner report. 

At the half-year point, global volumes had risen 4.5% on the same period in 2024, dropping just slightly to 4.4% at the eight-month mark, according to Container Trade Statistics.

 All individual regions showed year-on-year expansion with the exception of North America.

At carrier level, Hapag-Lloyd AG and COSCO SHIPPING Group were the only lines to beat the market average, with volumes of 6.7 Mteu and 13.3 Mteu for first-half 2025, a rise of 11% and 7% respectively.

 For the remaining top-10 carriers, the majority of volume gains were below 2.5%, including A.P. Moller - Maersk at 2.2%, EVERGREEN LINE 1.0%, Ocean Network Express 1.5%, CMA CGM 2.0% and ZIM Integrated Shipping Services 2.3%.  

HMM was an outlier, recording a slightly higher gain of 3.7%, driven by extra volumes to Europe and Latin America, the report said.

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