Nearly a quarter of the world’s liner companies were either taken over or went out of business between 2004 and 2011, while the size of the largest ships nearly doubled, according to the 2012 Review of Maritime Transport. The trend of increasing containership sizes and carrying capacities – and declining competition within the industry – has now continued for several years, the report says. From 2011 to 2012 the average number of liner companies providing services to and from each country’s ports worldwide declined by 4.5% per cent, the report says. Meanwhile, the average size of the largest container ships increased by 11.5%.
