The mega-ships are here, but not the expected mega-hub

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In its latest analysis, Drewry’s Container Insight Weekly looks at the ports of call of ultra-large containerships in North Europe and concludes that the anticipated concentration of these behemoths on mega-hubs has not happened. Drewry says its data shows that despite the containerships serving Asia-North Europe doubling in size in the past 10 years there has not been a reduction in the number of ports called on each loop. Indeed, the typical itinerary of a Benelux port, a German port, a UK port and either Le Havre or a second-tier European port has been maintained with in fact some carriers even adding direct calls, such as Gdansk in Poland, to gain a commercial advantage over their peers. Nevertheless, Drewry notes that the advent of the ULCS has resulted in fewer weekly services and therefore less frequent calls at ports overall, but however with much larger container exchanges.