by Manal Barakat, SeaNewsEditor

From the year 2000 to this year, a lot changed in the list of top container carriers globally.

According to a recent data analysis by Sea Intelligence, only three of the five largest liners remained at the top 5 as the market entered the new millennium.

These are Maersk, Evergreen, and MSC.

Evergreen, however, is no longer among the top 5.

Carriers P&O Nedlloyd and Hanjin not only exited the top five but are also no longer players in the container shipping business.

Out of the top 50 in the year 2000, only 24 carriers remained in operation as independent liners today.

As market survivors, the capacity of the 24 carriers increased by 983% during these 25 years, from 2.5 million TEU to 26.7 million TEU.

Sea Intelligence adds that the 24 carriers have significantly outgrown the market and solidified their market share. Since 2000, their market share jumped from nearly 54% to 84%.

The current top 50 list includes 26 newcomers. Some are new container carriers, and others were outside the top 50 list in 2000.

The 26 newcomers currently operate only 6% of the global fleet, while the 24 survivors operate 84%.

Today, the latest data from Alphaliner’s Top 100 show that MSC has the biggest capacity share at 20.3%, followed by Maersk with 14.3%.

While the difference in share between MSC and Maersk is stark, the difference between the second and third carriers on the list – CMA CGM – is only 2.1%.

The French liner grew significantly in the past few years, topping Chinese carrier COSCO with a capacity share of 12.2%.