40ft high cubes set to dominate container market

High cube 40ft containers are stealing a march on traditional 40ft equipment and by the end of 2013 represented just short of 50% of the maritime container fleet, according to Drewry’s recently published Container Census report.

The overall fleet of maritime 40ft high cube containers grew by over 7% in 2013, a much faster pace than the global container fleet, which saw growth limited to just 4.3%.

“Gains made in the maritime standard fleet came wholly at the expense of standard 40ft equipment, whose count continued to decline, although the 20ft share held stable at about a third,” said Andrew Foxcroft, editor of Drewry’s Container Census report. “These long-term changes in the fleet composition are predicted to continue through 2014-17.”