Boom rolls on for dry box builders

There appears to be no end to the appetite of ocean carriers to order new containers, with almost 8 million TEU expected to be manufactured this year. This would be just shy of the 8.13 million TEU produced in 2021.

These boxes are, however, mainly being constructed out of the need for liner shipping companies, other transport operators and logistics companies to build more resilience into their service networks and to deal as effectively as possible with a growing number of operational and equipment repositioning challenges.

For several years now the rate of growth in the global container equipment pool has outpaced, and significantly so, the annual growth in containerised trade. Associated with this have been five years or so when container production has been well ahead of most analysts’ projections and this year will be no exception.

While production has mainly comprised standard dry freight containers, almost 80% of which were 40ft high-cubes in H1 2026, the output of reefer containers has also been very strong, particularly over the past two years.

This story was originally published by World Cargo News. Read the full story at World Cargo News →