Increase in Large Vessels on the Far East–Middle East Route
The top 10 shipping companies are deploying larger vessels on the Far East–Middle East route. The number of vessels above 15,200 TEU has doubled in the last 12 months, reaching 16.
In the ranking of the top 10 trade routes by average vessel size, the Far East–North Europe route takes first place. Last month, of the 298 vessels deployed on this route, 134 had a capacity of more than 18,000 TEU.
According to Alphaliner data, the average vessel size on this trade route reached 15,734 TEU, but when looking only at the top 10 carriers, the average is 18,184 TEU. This corresponds to a year-on-year increase of 5.4%. On the Far East–Mediterranean trade route, the average vessel capacity of the top 10 carriers is 16,137 TEU.
Large vessels are becoming increasingly popular on the Far East–Middle East route. The number of vessels above 15,200 TEU has doubled in the last 12 months, reaching 16, and raised the average vessel size of the top 10 carriers to 11,985 TEU (+20.6%).
The Asia–West Africa trade is the fastest-growing route. On this trade route, the average size increased by only 4.5%, but the number of vessels serving this trade rose from 122 in January 2025 to 164 last month.
These figures also include vessels from MSC Cargo’s Far East — East Med “Tiger” service, which operates direct sailings from Abidjan, Lome, and Tema to Singapore and China.
