The contracting of new container ships maintains a historic pace, although shipping companies have changed their strategy. After several years dominated by megaships destined for the major East-West routes, the market is now betting on smaller units to serve the growth of regional trade and renew an increasingly aging fleet. This is reflected in a recent analysis by the Alphaliner portal.
The global order book currently reaches 12.98 million TEUs, distributed across 1,592 vessels, which is equivalent to 38.3% of the capacity of the cellular fleet currently in service. This is one of the largest shipbuilding programs in the sector’s recent history. Growth began to accelerate in 2025, already considered a record year for the contracting of new container ships. During that year, 737 vessels were ordered, with a combined capacity of 5 million TEUs, boosting the global order book by almost a third. The trend has not lost intensity in 2026, when during the first half of the year orders have already been formalized for 329 new units, equivalent to 1.89 million TEUs, also establishing the best first quarter of contracting ever recorded.
The most significant data is not the volume of orders, but the change in trend in vessel size. While the post-pandemic wave of contracting was led by large container ships of over 16,000 TEUs, intended to reinforce the main intercontinental lines, since mid-2025 the market has begun to shift towards units of smaller capacity.
74%, below 6,500 TEUs
According to Alphaliner, 74% of orders placed since July 2025 correspond to vessels under 6,500 TEUs, compared to less than 30% recorded a year earlier. This change responds to an increasingly evident reality: regional fleets need to be renewed and demand for feeder and intra-regional services continues to grow. Shipping companies have identified that a large part of the vessels operating these routes are already over 20 years of service and will need to be replaced during this decade.
Notable are vessels of around 1,200 TEUs, set to become the new standard for small feeder services, as well as the Bangkokmax of 1,800 TEUs, especially adapted to Southeast Asian ports. During the last year, 52 units of the first segment and nearly 150 Bangkokmax have been contracted. Container ships of 3,100 TEUs also register strong activity, with over a hundred orders, and the segment between 5,000 and 6,500 TEUs, which totals almost 130 newbuilds destined mainly for regional routes.
The shift in priorities is so pronounced that the second quarter of 2026 could close without a single order for container ships larger than 16,000 TEUs, an unprecedented circumstance since the beginning of 2024.
Large orders in 2024 and 2025
Despite this reorientation, the global order book continues to be heavily conditioned by orders for large units placed between 2024 and early 2025. Over the next three years, numerous Neo-Panamax and Megamax vessels will enter service, which will cause the global capacity of the segment above 18,000 TEUs to practically double compared to that existing today.
As a result, it will be one of the segments with the lowest average age in the entire fleet.
In contrast, the outlook is very different among smaller vessels. Alphaliner warns that, although contracting has picked up, the order book for units under 6,500 TEUs still does not offset the high number of ships that have already reached or are close to reaching 25 years of age, so the need for renewal will remain high in the coming years. The market thus faces a new phase in which efficiency will no longer depend solely on vessel size, but also on the ability of shipping lines to adapt their fleets to an increasingly regionalized and demanding maritime trade.
