The latest data from Alphaliner, a well-known shipping data and consulting firm, shows that the container fleet controlled by COSCO Shipping Group (including COSCO Shipping Consolidated and Orient Overseas) is about to exceed 3 million TEU.

   As shown in the figure above, the latest data of Alphaliner shows that the total capacity of container ships controlled by COSCO Shipping has reached 2998073TEU, which is less than 2000TEU away from 3 million TEU.

    This means that assuming that the lease is not returned and the old ships are not sent and dismantled, COSCO Shipping only needs to accept one more small boat to achieve a breakthrough.

    According to Sindh Maritime network, according to the plan, OOCL will receive a 24,000 TEU super large container ship within this month. This also means that COSCO Shipping will exceed 3 million TEU capacity within this month. This will also make COSCO Shipping the fourth container shipping company after Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM to successfully exceed 3 million TEU capacity. In fact, according to Alphaliner data, COSCO Shipping currently has 54 new ships with a total capacity of more than 900,000 TEU awaiting delivery.

    In 2017-2018, COSCO Shipping Group successfully acquired Hong Kong Orient Overseas through layers of efforts to form a dual-brand consolidated shipping market strategy. At that time, the container fleet capacity of COSCO Shipping Line + Orient Overseas reached the third largest in the world, ranking among the first echelons, only after Maersk and China Shipping Line. Subsequently, as CMA CGM ordered a large number of new ships and bought second-hand ships, it surpassed COSCO Shipping to become the world's third largest container shipping company. According to Alphaliner's latest data, after the pandemic, a few years of frenzied ordering of new ships and acquisition of second-hand ships (frenzied acquisition of 326 ships!) MSC has successfully surpassed Maersk to become the world's largest container shipping company, with 785 ships under its control and a total capacity of nearly 5.4 million TEU! Earlier, analysts said that MSC's ultimate goal may be to achieve 6 million TEU of capacity control capacity. MSC also has 127 new vessels with a total capacity of more than 1.5 million TEU awaiting delivery.

   Maersk currently has 679 vessels with a total capacity of approximately 4.13 million TEU and currently has 32 new vessels with a total capacity of approximately 400,000 TEU waiting to be delivered. However, according to the previous public statements of the company's executives, Maersk, which is determined to transform into an integrated shipping logistics company, will maintain its capacity at the level of 4 million to 4.4 million TEU. So the company's new shipbuilding is expected only to replace its older, less efficient ships. CMA CGM, which surpassed COSCO Shipping in third place, currently has a fleet of 621 ships with a total capacity of nearly 3.5 million TEU, and has 123 new shipbuilding orders with a total capacity of nearly 1.3 million TEU.

    As the chart below shows, CMA CGM's massive order book means that at some point in the future (around 2026), the company could further surpass Maersk as the world's second largest consolidation company. Attached is a list of the world's top 100 container shipping companies in 1997. Compared with Alphaliner's current TOP100 ranking, you can intuitively feel the vicissitudes of the container shipping industry, what will become in the future? You never know.

    It is worth mentioning that in 2021, an analyst of Alphaliner previously told Xinde Maritime Network, "Never underestimate COSCO Shipping." Maybe one day COsco will buy another shipping company and become the number one shipping company."