Smaller vessels dominate Pacific: Niche carriers shift strategy

A new analysis from Sea-Intelligence shows a notable shift in the deployment of vessels by niche carriers on the Asia-NAWC trade. While overall capacity is increasing, the data shows that these carriers are favoring smaller vessels compared to pre-pandemic 2019.

2021-2022 will see an explosion of new niche carriers entering the trans-Pacific trade, pushing capacity up. However, as rates have fallen, these “opportunistic” carriers have retreated, establishing a new capacity base in 2023 and the first half of 2024 that is slightly above pre-pandemic levels.

Over the past 12 months, we have seen a significant increase in capacity from niche carriers. Surprisingly, despite higher sailings and weekly capacity, the average vessel size is smaller than in 2019. Specifically, the average vessel size in 2019 was 4,300 TEU, while in 2025 it will be just 3,600 TEU.

Source: Sea-Intelligence

Sea-Intelligence’s analysis also shows that in 2025, 8% of vessels deployed by niche carriers will be under 2,000 TEU, compared to just 4% in 2019. The proportion of vessels in the 2,000-3,999 TEU and 4,000-5,999 TEU ranges will also be higher in 2025. Conversely, in 2019, 33% of all vessels deployed by niche carriers on the Asia-NAWC route were over 6,000 TEU, but this figure will be just 15% in 2025.

This result remains the same even when limiting the data to the first 33 weeks of the year (for which data is available for 2025). This suggests that in 2019, niche carriers deployed fewer but larger vessels, whereas they are now using more smaller vessels. This strategic shift may reflect an effort to optimize costs or be more flexible in a volatile shipping market.

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Source: Phaata.com (According to Sea-Intelligence)

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