Container Shipping Charters Hold Firm as Port Congestion Persists
Summary
Maersk and Global Ship Lease say port capacity lags container volume, so congestion recurs and liners hold more ships; charter rates held through the Suez return.
Port congestion is now keeping container ship charter demand firm. On their third-quarter 2026 earnings calls on November 5 and November 9, liner A.P. Moller - Maersk (AMKBY) and containership lessor Global Ship Lease (GSL) both said terminal and inland transport capacity has fallen behind container volume, that congestion now recurs, and that liners therefore need to run more ships on their networks.
Longer port waits mean more ships per route
Container shipping has two main kinds of companies. Liners such as Maersk run scheduled routes and charge cargo owners freight. Lessors such as GSL own ships and rent them to liners for a daily rate under contracts called time charters. How many ships a route needs depends on how many days a ship takes to complete one loop. The longer ships queue at port for a berth, the more ships the same cargo volume ties up.
For the past two years, strong charter demand was mostly attributed to Red Sea disruption, which forced ships around the Cape of Good Hope, lengthened voyages and left the market short of ships. Both companies now point to a different cause: terminals, railheads and trucking capacity on shore are expanding too slowly to keep up with volume. Ships can be built in a few years, but expanding ports takes far longer, so congestion keeps coming back. To protect schedules and avoid losing volume, liners keep extra ships in their networks as a buffer. Smaller and mid-size ships, which are easier to redeploy, suit that role best, and that demand flows to the lessors that charter out those ships.
Cargo growth outpaced terminal capacity, and charter rates held through the Suez return
Maersk put a size on the gap. On its August call, the company said Far East exports grew 25% over the past three years while global terminal capacity grew only 10%.[1] In November, management said some key terminals are operating at their limits and the landside bottleneck will take time to resolve. It expects congestion to remain and raised its full-year EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) guidance to $8 billion to $8.5 billion on that basis.[2] Management also said trade is becoming more one-way, with fewer full containers coming back, which means more ships are needed; congestion will not be permanent, but it will occur relatively often.[2]
GSL described the same shift from the lessor's side. Its executive chairman said liners are building slack into networks that were previously run for leanness and efficiency, and are relying more on mid-size and smaller container ships.[3] The CEO said that although some liner services have returned to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, charter rates have held up quite well, even though the market had worried the reopening would weaken liners' appetite for chartered ships.[3] In its May 2026 call, GSL had described congestion as a ripple effect of Middle East rerouting.[4] This time it named underinvestment in ports and the infrastructure serving them as a structural cause.[3] A company that charters ships and a company that rents them out now give the same explanation for congestion, which suggests charter demand no longer rests only on Red Sea rerouting.
Mid-size charter renewals depend on whether congestion or new ships move first
If congestion becomes the norm, bargaining power shifts toward lessors that own mid-size ships and have charters expiring in 2027 and 2028. Liners would need to keep more ships for longer, raising fleet costs; for now, Maersk is absorbing that with congestion-supported earnings.[2] MPC Container Ships estimates port congestion ties up about 1.7 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) of capacity, or about 5% of the global fleet.[5]
The view has clear limits. Maersk itself expects a gradual return to Suez to ease the congestion impact in the short term, because shorter voyages let it redeploy its own fleet.[2] In addition, the order book for 6,000 to 8,000 TEU ships already exceeds 30% of the existing fleet.[5] Once ports run smoothly again, liners would shift to larger ships, and the premium on mid-size ships would be hard to sustain. Two measures are worth tracking: whether mid-size charter renewal rates hold as the Suez return proceeds, and whether the share of capacity tied up in congestion falls from about 5%.
Companies this change could affect
- MPC Container Ships (MPZZF): Charters small and mid-size container ships to liners and still has about 15% of 2027 and about 40% of 2028 vessel days open,[5] so its renewal rates would directly reflect liners' demand for buffer capacity.
- Euroseas (ESEA): Charters feeder and mid-size container ships and has about 53% of 2028 vessel days not yet fixed,[6] leaving more of its fleet than peers to be re-contracted at prevailing rates in 2027 and 2028.
- Danaos (DAC): Also charters container ships to liners, but has already fixed 93% of 2027 and 79% of 2028 vessel days, and management did not mention port congestion on its call,[7] so its room to reprice in the near term is smaller.
Sources
[1] Drillr · A.P. Moller - Maersk (AMKBY) · 2026-08-13 · Q2 2026 earnings call summary
[2] Drillr · A.P. Moller - Maersk (AMKBY) · 2026-11-05 · Q3 2026 earnings call
[3] Drillr · Global Ship Lease (GSL) · 2026-11-09 · Q3 2026 earnings call
"Yes, I might just say that it's much easier to grow the fleet but it's much harder to grow the ports."
[4] Drillr · Global Ship Lease (GSL) · 2026-05-22 · Q1 2026 earnings call
[5] Drillr · MPC Container Ships (MPZZF) · 2026-08-26 · Q2 2026 earnings call
[6] Drillr · Euroseas (ESEA) · 2026-08-13 · Q2 2026 earnings call
[7] Drillr · Danaos (DAC) · 2026-08-04 · Q2 2026 earnings call
This article only helps surface industry changes and companies that may be overlooked. It is not a stock recommendation.