Global Container Shipping Profits Every Year From 2020 to 2025 Despite Capacity Growth

Before the pandemic, supply and demand largely determined freight rates and the financial health of shipping lines. When capacity exceeded demand, rates came under pressure and carriers posted losses. In 2016, Hanjin Shipping collapsed. Before 2016, container lines had added capacity too heavily and too quickly, leaving the industry mired in long-term overcapacity and carriers loss-making year after year. Since then, carriers have considered demand growth when ordering new ships, and some have sought new paths in an attempt to break the container shipping cycle and secure stable returns in good times and bad. In 2026, the fewer than 10 large carriers left worldwide began a new round of expansion.

From 2020 to 2025, the container shipping industry was profitable every year, although some individual quarters recorded losses. During this period, capacity grew faster than cargo volumes. On the US trade lane, for example, volumes peaked in 2021 and 2022, began to decline in 2023 and have shown almost no growth since. Although US trade lane rates fell to low levels several times, they quickly rebounded. The ratio of new ship orders to operating capacity is already far above normal levels.