News / Medium-sized carriers losing out in capacity race

Photo: SeaLead

Medium-sized carriers have been outpaced by the wider market over the past 12 months, in capacity terms, following a few years in which they swelled their ranks and tapped into niche markets and regional demand.

In marked contrast with the overall global container fleet growing some 6.4%, or 2m teu, year on year in 2025, the medium-sized market’s year-on-year rate of increase was just 2.7%, or 56,000 teu, according to Alphaliner.

Within the medium-sized cohort, there were some standout performers, for example AD Ports-owned Global Feeder Shipping (GFS) sustaining a 66.3% growth rate, adding 54,000 teu to its fleet size.

Alphaliner said: “Continued demand, particularly in the Mediterranean, Middle East and India bolstered the fleets of the three largest common feeder operators, X-Press Feeders, DP World’s Unifeeder and GFS.”

It added that GFS’s expansion was primarily down to second-hand and charter tonnage, noting that having become the primary box line arm of AD Ports’ maritime cluster, reorganised as Noatum Maritime, it benefits “from a consolidation of the group’s liner tonnage into GFS”.

But if GFS represented the high point as far as new tonnage was concerned, its growth was dwarfed by the massive scaling back at Sealead, which pulled 110,983 teu – more than half its available capacity (54.6%) – from its fleet over the 12-month period. This was due in no small part down to its July decision to return 16 vessels on charter that were caught up in the US Office of Foreign Asset Control’s sanctions on an Iranian political adviser.

Those terminations cut 73,310 teu from its fleet and were identified by The Loadstar as including among their number Bigli (2005-built 6,350 teu), Hakuna Matata (6,661 teu, 2008), Rantanplan (5,888 teu, 2006), Simba (6,865 teu, 2015), and Timon (6,966 teu, 2009).

Alphaliner added: “[It] reacted swiftly [to sanctions] by terminating charters for the vessels, which accounted for about two-thirds of its overall loss. Network rationalisation, following the withdrawal of several standalone and joint loops, shed another 30,000 teu slots.

“This resulted a hard slide to 24^th place from 13^th in a table of largest box lines. By contrast, exploring new corridors, SeaLead has since entered the China-Mexico trade through a multi-carrier partnership and launched a joint intra-Asia loop.”