ALPHALINER
ALPHALINER
ALPHALINER
TOP 100
The Alphaliner TOP 100 provides a constantly updated ranking of the 100 largest
container/liner operators as well as global capacity figures taking into account the
fleets of virtually all container operators worldwide. Alphaliner has computed it on a
daily basis since 1996 and it has become a benchmark for the liner shipping industry.
It allows to follow the progression of the fleet of each operator as well as the
evolution of their global market shares.
The Alphaliner TOP 100 is updated every day. It is based on the fleet effectively
deployed by each operator. Subsidiaries are consolidated to give a clear picture. The
present document explains the way this TOP 100 is computed and how the market
shares are established.
Contents
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ALPHALINER – TOP 100 - How It Works –
The worldwide reference in liner shipping
è In exceptional cases, a small difference can appear between the fleet list downloaded from the
OPERATORS section and the ship list downloaded from the TOP 100. It is explained by the fact that the
lists displayed within the OPERATORS section include -for information purposes- ships which are to join
a given operator, but which have not yet moved in. Because of this particular, transient status, they are
logically excluded from the TOP 100 teu count and, as such, do not appear when displaying the fleet list
from the TOP 100 page. Such ships are included in the operator's figure as soon as taken in charge.
Most of the time, these are ships freshly chartered, either currently idle or positioning to the first loading
port where the ship will be effectively taken in charge by the operator (charterer). It concerns however a
very few ships (technically, the date of delivery of the ship to the charterer is used to include her in the
TEU count). For the sake of exactitude, these ships are counted in the Total fleet figures displayed at the
head of the TOP 100 page (a different indexing scale is used specifically for this purpose).
Ships performing General Repairs (GR – routine periodic maintenance including dry
docking) remain included in the operators counts, as this a normal event within an operated
fleet, affecting all operators (ships undertake GR on every three to five years and are
generally idle for about three weeks).
With this in mind, it is therefore not surprising that the TEU figure of an operator can go
down from one day to the other, as a chartered ship may have left the fleet while there were
no entries. It is a punctual situation. Over a longer period of time, the TEU count will show
evidence of its growth.
è TEU vs DWT
We have compared the TEU and DWT figures for the Top 50 lines in order to weigh up the
TEU against the DWT. We found that the carriers which would be advantaged by a DWT
ranking operate multipurpose tonnage along with cellular tonnage.
As multipurpose tonnage is generally slower than cellular tonnage, what is gained on one
side is lost on another. Furthermore, multipurpose tonnage dealing with breakbulk cargoes
as well as containers spends more time in port. Thus, relatively low sea speed and time
spent in port offset the DWT advantage.
Therefore, the TEU figure represents, in our opinion, a good yardstick to compare carriers
and to assess market shares.
Differences can occur because it depends on how the capacity above deck is measured.
The deck capacity is a very elastic figure. It depends on how many layers of containers are
taken into account. In order to assess the true figures for ships for which the TEU capacity is
obviously underevaluated, we simply take the TEU figures of straight sister ships for which it
is well known. When this cannot be done, we have worked out ship plans when available
and also simply counted the number of boxes on deck when seeing a ship at full load or with
the help of photos (taking into account the height of boxes, as the standard container height
used to evaluate ships capacities is 8 ft 6 in).
As said above, the upper tier of containers -and sometimes the two upper tiers- consists in
empty boxes for stability reasons. These layers of empty boxes are taken into account in the
ship contractual descriptions and it makes sense to include them to assess the capacity of
all ships. However, there are ships for which other technical limitations occur, such as the
resistance of hatch covers (mainly old ships were designed at a time when the maximization
of deck capacity was a secondary consideration).
Obviously, there are ships which are seen from time to time with layers of a height rivalling
with that of the funnel on their aft deck - this is usually not a normal condition and we do not
consider it.
A question often raised concerns the pertinence of retaining the nominal TEU capacity for
statistical purposes vs. the effective TEU capacity, or even the capacity in TEU at 14 tons
and the fact that the top layer consists in empty boxes. The TEU at 14 tons intake expresses
the ability to load a given number of teu containers (of 8 ft 6 inches in height)
homogeneously loaded at a total weight of 14 tons, without jeopardizing the ship stability
and to remain within the draft allowed by the freeboard rules. This is computed with a given
quantity of supplies (included fuel oil) and ballast water.
As far as reefer ships are concerned, we include their TEU intake (in most cases, it is
confined only on deck) when such ships are deployed on regular services where there is a
mix of reefer cargoes in holds and reefer containers on deck, or on return legs with
breakbulk in holds and containers on deck. Reefer ships are usually deployed on pure reefer
trades (carrying fruit, meat and fish), including on regular services (often weekly) operated
by fruit traders or by reefer specialists such as NYK/Cool or Seatrade. Containers are
confined to the weather deck. The reefer breakbulk under deck capacity is then excluded. It
does not matter (in our view) as it is generally seen as a different business.
The reefer ship operators can also sublet the container capacity of their ships to third party
carriers. In most cases, it is limited to deck capacity as many of these reefer ships are not
designed to carry containers under deck. Well established third party carriers are taken into
account in the Liner count, although they are small ones and are far beyond the 100th
operator.
Large reefer ship operators such as Dole or Chiquita/GWF operate pure container ships
(fully celled) alongside with some reefer ships of more conventional design deployed on well
defined regular trades. Both their containerships and the deck capacity of their reefer ships
are included in the Liner/TOP 100 count.
Conbulkers are counted ONLY when they are deployed on liner trades, and are excluded
when they are operated on parcel trades or pure forest products trades, even if regular.
Actually, conbulkers interfere today only marginally with container trades. In rare cases,
container operations are mixed with forest products (such as Westwood), and we include
the involved TEU figures in the liner TEU count.
Roro ships usually deployed by companies such as Delmas, Grimaldi or Linea Messina are
basically versatile ships able to deal with a large variety of cargoes, including containers.
For the TEU count, we retain the TEU intake of these ships, as displayed by these
operators, although the TEU volumes can be partly filled with rolling stock and other
cargoes, including breakbulk cargoes on MAFI, trailers, or handled with lift trucks. In fact,
these cargoes have a TEU equivalent to the TEU capa they filI. Conversely, volumes
dedicated to rolling stock only can be used to load containers on MAFI, the capacity of
which is usually not counted in the nominal TEU intake.
In the case of Grimaldi, the hybrid roro ships used have a relatively low TEU capa and it
does not reflect the overall transportation capa of such ships. However, as these ships are
largely used to carry vehicles, this pure vehicle capa is de facto excluded from the count.
We also completely exclude from the count the PCTCs deployed by Grimaldi (although they
are displayed in the Grimaldi profile for information purposes). This is logical as we exclude
all vehicle carriers from our count. In the same way, we do not take into account the PCTCs
fleets of NYK, MOL, Kawasaki etc., and we also exclude the Wallenius-Wilhelmsen fleet,
today comprising pure vehicle carriers only.
Alphaliner is a leading data and information provider in the liner shipping field, providing an exhaustive and
permanently updated inventory of all the world containerships and liner services.
Detailed descriptions of the containerships are provided, together with their commercial history and their
current status. Liner services data sheets detail the rotation of each service and the ships deployed. A full
section is dedicated to the liner operators, with trading profiles, fleets and orderbooks. On top of this,
Alphaliner also provides fleet statistics, forecast and market analysis, as well as a weekly newsletter.
Multipurpose ships are included in the Alphaliner TOP 100 ONLY when they are deployed on
liner/container trades by liner/container operators. In all other cases, they are excluded.
Actually, the vast majority of multipurpose ships are employed outside the liner trades. In the
rare cases when a multipurpose ship joins a liner operator to carry containers, then
Alphaliner assigns the "liner" status to the ship and assigns it to the operator employing her.
Thus, its TEU capacity is de facto included in the operators capacity count.
Are vehicle carrying lines or forest products lines covered in the TOP 100 ?
No, they are not as these lines are not container-oriented. The operators included in the
Alphaliner TOP 100 are selected according to our definition of liner trades. The liner
operations described in the Alphaliner website include every liner service in the common
acceptance of the term.
Given this common acceptance, are excluded a number of specific, more or less regular
services such as parcel trades (steel and other neo-bulk products), pure forest product
trades or pure vehicle carrying services. Although some of them are shown in the website
for information purposes, we do not include them in the fleet statistics. In fact, they usually
do not involve the carrying of containers.
Therefore, operators of regular vehicle carrier services or of forest product carrying services
are not covered in the TOP 100 count or in the fleet statistics.
Why is the TEU fleet bigger than the Total TEU liner fleet at the head of the TOP 100 ?
It is because you include in your own count all the container-capable ships listed in the
database, including those which are NOT deployed on liner trades.
The total TEU liner fleet figures displayed at the head of the Alphaliner TOP 100 (Today,
there are xxx ships active on liner trades, for yyy TEU and zzz TDW) results from the
addition of the TEU capacities of the ships deployed by ALL liner operators, i.e. those in the
TOP 100 and those beyond the TOP 100 (down to the smallest operator in the database, with
a single ship of 60 teu), as well as ships in transient situations.
The total TEU fleet computed through the addition of the capacities of all ships included in
the Alphaliner database is not relevant as it includes the capacities of ships fitted for
containers, but which are not currently deployed on liner trades (and thus are excluded from
the total TEU liner fleet count). Such ships are conbulkers employed on grain trade, timber
trade etc., cargo vessels employed on tramp trade or on project cargo voyages (not liner),
roros employed as truck ferries on short sea routes etc., and even cellular ships
exceptionally deployed on non-container tramp trades.
When one of these excluded ships is chartered by a liner operator involved in the container
business, then it is included automatically within the TEU liner count.
It is because this ship is idle as a result of an accident (repairs after a collision, a grounding
or a fire), or a grave engine failure (implying for example the replacement of a broken engine
crankshaft), or an upgrading (such as lengthening in progress), or because of a seizure.
In such cases, the ship does not participate to any trade while being idle and is even not
available for charter (at least at short notice), and it is why we exclude her from the
operators TEU count, and hence from the total liner count. Of note, the ships lying idle for
operators’ account as a result of a market slump, or awaiting their sailing slot, remain
counted in the operator’s fleets.
In the case of a chartered ship, she would even be excluded de facto from the fleet of your
company in the case of an accident, which usually triggers the “off hire” clause.
Why some ships owned by my company are excluded from its TEU count ?
It is because these ships are chartered out by your company to another operator, and are
thus counted in the fleet of this other operator. The Alphaliner TOP 100 is based on ships
effectively deployed by an operator on its own services. So, if one your ships is NOT
deployed by your company on your own services, it is excluded from your company's fleet
count. These chartered-out ships thus appear in the fleets of the operators which have
chartered them, which is logical. The same apply to chartered ships you would sublet to a
third party.
As far as the owned component is concerned, all the ships owned by your company can be
displayed in the OWNERS section of the website (where only the owned ships are listed).
This list of “owned ships only” includes the ships that you charter out to third party operators,
which are labelled TO in the status field of the ship data sheets to mark the fact that they are
chartered ships provided by operating owners, at the difference of ships provided by non-
operating owners (TO = charter by opportunity or charter within the frame of an operational
exchange – as explained in the Ship Glossary).
Why do I get a list of ships that does not match with TOP 100 figures ?
It is because you got the fleet list from the “operated fleet” item of an affiliate of a wider
operating group.
The fleet listed in the OPERATORS profile are those strictly operated by affiliated units
within an operating group. Thus, clicking in the “operated fleet” item of the Maersk Line
profile leads to a display of the ships operated under the “Maersk Line” name, excluding
those operated by other companies within the APM-Maersk Group, namely “Safmarine”,
“MCC-Transport” and "OACL", the fleets of which appear under their respective profiles.
In order to get an APM-Maersk Group exhaustive fleet list, as used for the TOP 100 daily
compilation (consolidating the fleets of Maersk Line, Safmarine, MCC-Transport and OACL),
you can either click on the ranking of APM-Maersk in the TOP 100 page (this function is
active only for registered users), or you can hit the relevant link at the head of the Maersk
Line profile.
Why is there a ship named with an APL prefix in the MOL’s operated fleet ?
It happens in a few cases that ships chartered (and therefore operated) by a given line are
named after the name style of a partner for commercial reasons. Thus, taking an example, it
may be surprising to see a ship with a name prefix in APL listed in the MOL's fleet. It is not a
mistake. It reflects only that the ship is actually operated by her charterer MOL, but has
been given an APL name in order to represent the presence of APL on the trade on which
she is deployed. Such a case occurs also when ships are exchanged within a partnership,
without changing their names.
Of note, some of the breakbulk services displayed focus almost only on breakbulk cargoes, project cargoes or
parcels, with the only containers carried being ‘client’ containers (enclosing for example small items
accompanying a larger project cargo shipment). The capacity of these ships is excluded from the Global liner
count in order to not distort the total liner TEU figure by TEU capable ships that actually do not carry containers
(or very few) on the service on which they are employed.
Alphaliner DOES NOT cover regular parcel services, involving for example full cargoes of
steel, or of forest products, or of bagged rice, etc. (even if for several shippers). These
services involve mostly open hatch bulk carriers of 20-50,000 tdw, excluded from the
website (except when they are conbulkers – listed just in case they would come one day on
container trades). Some of these services are however listed in the website as they are in
the grey zone between established liner breakbulk services and regular parcel services.
Alphaliner DOES NOT cover regular captive services (i.e. offering regular services for a
single shipper), even if employing multipurpose cargo vessels. It can be for example a
regular service between two production units of the same group. Given their nature, there
are no published schedules, and by definition they are not common carriers.
END