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  • October 3rd, 2025
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    Investments and financing challenges of the EU’s port managing bodies; findings from a comprehensive survey

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    Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025

    Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025

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Academic perspectives on the feasibility of mega container shipsContainers

Academic perspectives on the feasibility of mega container ships

January 4th, 2021 Containers, Featured, Viewpoints

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Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025
Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025
Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines
Portgraphic: fleet capacity (owned/chartered) of container shipping lines
Evaluating customer satisfaction with clearing and forwarding agents:  Kuwait Shuwaikh Port
Evaluating customer satisfaction with clearing and forwarding agents: Kuwait Shuwaikh Port
Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025
Portgraphic: Top-15 EU container ports in H1 2025

By Theo Notteboom

Scale increases in container vessel size are a well-documented and much debated topic. The search for economies of scale and the focus on cost control have pushed the container shipping industry towards the deployment of ever larger containerships. In the early days of containerisation, ships had a nominal capacity of a few hundreds of TEU. In 1988, APL was the first shipping line to deploy a post-Panamax vessel. In 1996, Maersk Line shook the market by introducing the Regina Maersk of about 7,400 TEU. Consecutive rounds of scale increases led to the introduction of the ‘Emma Maersk’ in 2006, a containership which can hold more than 15,000 TEU and measures 397m length overall, a beam of 56 m, and a commercial draft of 15.5m.

In 2013, Maersk Line led the next wave in scale enlargement by introducing the Triple E class (about 18,000 TEU). In the past few years, vessel capacity has been pushed beyond the 20,000 TEU mark, a trend initiated by COSCO Shipping (ships of up to 21,237 TEU), CMA CGM (up to 20,954 TEU) and OOCL (units of up to 21,413 TEU). The first Ultra Large Container Ships (ULCS) of 23,000 TEU were delivered in 2019. The world’s largest container vessel at the time of writing was the HMM Algeciras with a capacity of just under 24,000 TEU. The introduction of ever larger container vessels has resulted in an overall upscaling across the main east-west trade routes, with big vessels also cascading to north-south routes.

In his contribution published in 100th issue of Port Technology International – a  PortEconomics partner in publishing Theo Notteboom writes on the feasibility of mega container ships by the academic point of view.

You might freely download the article via PortEconomics here

Next article Disruptions and resilience in global container shipping and ports: covid-19 pandemic vs. 2008-2009 financial crisis
Previous article The correlation between the behaviour of ports and freight rates in Latin America and the Caribbean during the COVID19 pandemic

Theo Notteboom

Dr. Theo Notteboom is co-founder and co-director of PortEconomics. He is a professor in port and maritime economics and management with about 25 years of experience in this area. His work is widely cited. He is a regular speaker at international conferences and a rapporteur/expert to leading organizations in the field. He is Chair Professor at Ghent University in Belgium. He is a visiting Research Professor at China Institute of FTZ Supply Chain of Shanghai Maritime University. He also is part-time Professor at University of Antwerp and the Antwerp Maritime Academy in Belgium. He previously held a full-time position as High-end Foreign Expert / Professor at Dalian Maritime University in China (2014-2016) and an MPA visiting professorship in port management at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He is immediate past President (2010-2014) and Council Member of International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME). Between October 2006 and October 2014 he was President of ITMMA of the University of Antwerp. Between 2009 and 2014 he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Belgian Institute of Transport Organizers (BITO), an institute of the Belgian Federal Government.

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Investments and financing challenges of the EU’s port managing bodies; findings from a comprehensive survey European Port Policy

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