The federation’s usual report notes a sharp increase in freight rates in 2024 (+20.4%) and positive results for all carriers except Yang Ming
The Fedespedi (National Federation of Shipping Companies) Research Center has published its usual analysis of the financial performance of the major container shipping companies, offering both an overview of the 2024 financial year and a look back at the first quarter of 2025.
In this tenth edition, the study took into consideration the top ten globally active carriers (i.e. CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Maersk, OOCL, Wan Hai, Yang-Ming, Zim), with the exception of MSC (which does not publish its financial statements) and with only partial data for CMA CGM (which had not published its 2024 financial statement).
The first noteworthy point is that, after a substantially stable 2023 (+0.6%), 2024 saw an increase in global container traffic of approximately 6%, reaching 183.1 million TEUs handled.
The first three months of 2025
The first three months of 2025 also proved extremely positive, with traffic growing by 4.2%, driven by frontloading to the US. Looking at Europe, the analysis highlighted stability in the first three months of the year (compared to the same period in 2024) in traffic to North America (+0.5%), a net increase (+9.7%) in traffic to Latin America, the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent (+5.2%), and the Far East (+8.7%).
The first half of 2025 also saw an improvement in performance, despite the complexity of the routes, in terms of the percentage of ships arriving on time out of the total (rising to 58.7%) and average days of delay (4.6).
Also noteworthy is the average increase in freight rates over 2024, up 20.4% compared to the previous year. Furthermore, with the exception of Yang Ming, all the companies analyzed achieved highly positive results in 2024, with significant increases in both revenue, operating income, and final profit.
The size of the fleet
Other significant data on which the Fedespedi Research Center focused its attention is the size of the fleet of the companies analyzed, which at the end of 2024 consisted of 3,075 ships (56% of the total container ships), with a total capacity of 21.3 million TEU (85.8% of the total) and an average capacity per ship of 6,716 TEU. In the period 2022 – July 2025, the capacity of the main companies increased by a total of 5.597 million TEU, with significant increases for MSC (+2.094 million TEU), Hapag Lloyd (+659,000 TEU), and CMA CGM (+609,000 TEU).
Finally, Fedespedi noted that 2024 will be marked by a redefinition of alliances between operators, which will impact the routes operated by shipping companies
Alessandro Pitto president of Fedespedi
On the other hand Alessandro Pitto has been confirmed as president of Fedespedi, the National Federation of International Shipping Companies, for a new three-year term (2025-2028). The appointment was renewed during the Federation’s private meeting held in Milan. New members of the Board of Directors, Board of Auditors, and Board of Arbitration were also elected at the meeting.
Related : Container traffic in Italian ports slightly decreasing (-0.6%) in 2024
