The Main Line Operators (MLO) clearly dominate the European short sea mar- ket with a combined market share of 74%, leaving only 26% for the regional carriers and the common feeder operators.
MSC, who in early January took the top spot in the Alphaliner Top 100 from its rival Maersk as the world’s largest ocean carrier by operated capacity, has by far the highest market share of all carriers in the intra-European service seg- ment. Its share reaches 31.5%, almost double that of its overall 17.1% global market share.
The Geneva-based carrier is five times bigger than Europe’s largest third-party feeder operator Unifeeder, and has nearly the same market share and capacity as Maersk/Sealand, CMA CGM and COSCO combined, who together operate 325,000 teu or 33%.
At 310,000 teu, MSC operates 7.2% of its 4.31 Mteu globally deployed capacity on the intra-Europe trade.
Meanwhile, the carrier’s market share would even be higher if capacity on its deepsea ‘IPAK’ and ‘North Europe-Morocco-West Africa’ services, which both include a NWC – Baltic leg, was also included.
The four largest MLOs in the intra-European service segment (MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk and COSCO) together account for 65% or 635,000 teu of the overall capacity deployed, which currently stands at 983,000 teu.
CMA CGM takes the second spot in Europe’s largest Main Line Oper- ators by deployed capacity. The French carrier has a market share of 15%, equal to 147,000 teu, which represents 4.6% of its global fleet. Containerships, the intra-European short-sea operator and feeder carrier of CMA CGM, operates 33 ships with a total capacity of 32,400 teu, mainly trading in intra-North Europe.
Maersk with its intra-Europe arm Sealand Europe & Med claims the third spot among Europe’s largest MLOs with a market share of 11.6%. In the past four months, the Danish carrier has lost 4.5% of its market share by redeploying five 5,560 teu ‘Monte’-class ships from its North Europe – East Med service to more lucrative trade routes between North and South America. This reduced its intra- European capacity by 33,500 teu.
The third-party or common feeder operators remain under pressure. There is only one common feeder operator in the top five for intra- Europe shipping: Unifeeder, with a market share of 6.2%.
Unifeeder, with its main focus on the North European service seg- ment, has seen its market share fall by 1.5% in the last decade. This is mainly due to the growing dominance of the three largest Europe- an MLOs (MSC, Maersk and CMA CGM), particularly in the intra- Mediterranean trade.
Despite the reduction in its market share, Unifeeder (ranked 17th in the Alphaliner top 100), including its intra-Med affiliate Unimed, pres- ently operates a noteworthy fleet of 59 ships with a total capacity of 61,000 teu in North Europe and the Med.
This makes Unifeeder the largest independent feeder operator in Eu- rope ahead of Turkish Arkas Line (ranked 28th) and Unifeeder’s rival X-Press Feeders (ranked 15th), the largest common feeder operator.
Throughout 2021, global ocean carriers have redeployed some of their vessels from the intra-European market to deepsea trades. Con- sequently, the capacity deployed on intra-European services has de- clined by 4.5%, or almost 50,000 teu, while the global fleet grew by 4.5% over the course of 2021.
This has provided an opportunity for the ‘classic’ feeder operators to regain market share in the short term. However, many operators have struggled to secure suitable ships on the charter market, where they are often outbid by operators chasing tonnage for extra sailings on the lucrative East-West trades.
