An empirical study of fleet expansion and growth of ship size in container liner shipping

The world fleet capacity has been continuously enlarged in container liner shipping. In line with the enlargement, new ship generations have been launched, especially since the 1990s.The paper concentrates on the two major issues of capacity expansion and growth of ship size in the industry. Multiple regression models are built to measure the effects of fleet capacity and ship size as well as slot utilisation level, market freight rate and oil price on revenue and cost of shipping lines in the period 1997–2012. Investing in new capacity will lead to higher total revenue of operators whereas lower unit revenue. Its positive effect on total and unit cost can be noted. No statistical evidence is found to indicate the relationship between ship size and financial indicators. Additionally, it is possible to evaluate positive influence of slot utilisation level and market freight rate, and negative influence of oil price on financial results of liner carriers.