CMA CGM is on course to overtake AP Moller-Maersk as the world’s second-largest liner shipping company.
The French carrier has a massive orderbook that could see it leapfrog the Danish carrier by 2026, according to Alphaliner.
That would relegate the Copenhagen-based company to third place, having already been surpassed last year as the world’s largest shipping line by MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company.
CMA CGM is currently the third-largest container carrier with a fleet of 625 vessels and 3.49m teu.
That could change based on respective orderbooks and recent vessel chartering and secondhand buying habits, says Alphaliner.
The Marseille-based company is expected to reach a fleet of 4m teu by the end of 2024 or early 2025, effectively doubling its capacity from 2m teu in July 2016.
The fleet is expected to stabilise at around 4.2m teu in late 2026.
That would take it close to the level where it could potentially overtake Maersk’s predicted total of 4.34m teu, the container analyst argues.
Ultra aggressive
The French carrier has been “ultra-aggressive” in placing newbuilding orders, says Alphaliner.
The company has amassed a vessel pipeline of at least 122 ships and 1.24m teu, compared to only 32 confirmed ships and 400,000 teu for Maersk, it added.
Saade family-controlled CMA CGM has also procured numerous midsize vessels through “a tidal wave of charters”, including ships from the spot market and new tonnage that will join the carrier upon delivery, the analyst said.
The French carrier has concluded 170 fixtures so far this year, compared with only 33 for Maersk.
CMA CGM’s orderbook is the second largest after that of MSC, which has some 1.49m teu in the pipeline. That orderbook stands at around 35.5% of the French carrier’s existing fleet capacity.
Maersk lost its position as the largest liner operator in January 2022 when the baton was handed to MSC.
Today, the fleet of the Geneva-based carrier including ships on order currently amounts to around 5.1m teu, or 19% of capacity, according to Alphaliner.
That puts the capacity gap between MSC and second-placed Maersk at close to 1m teu.
