The shipping lines in Europe have been adding to their container carrying capacity more than their counterparts in Asia. Thus, the combined capacity of the four major container lines of Europe — Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company, CMA-CGM and Hapag-Lloyd — is substantially higher than that of more than half a dozen major Asian containers operators — Cosco, China Shipping, Evergreen, NYK, Hanjin, OOCL and NOL — despite the Asia lines having achieved a substantial increase in their capacity in the past couple of years.

In 2006, the global container shipping capacity rose 14 per cent to reach the level of 11.31 million TEUs, the largest since 1999.