Consumers’ need for moving goods around has decreased, and major shipping liners have thusly cancelled voyages and removed vessels from the global trade fleet.

Denmark-based Maersk has reacted most strongly by removing far more vessels than competitors, writes Alphaliner in its latest newsletter.

The media adds that Maersk’s leading position on increasing capacity is evidently tied to low freight demand on routes from Asia to Northern Europe.

A total of 35 large commercial ships have been removed from the global fleet and are now classified as idle. 17 of these are either owned or rented by Maersk. The ships each have a capacity of more than 7,500 teu.

If you look at all commercial ships, no matter the size, there are 122 of them that are idle. These exclude those that are pulled out of operations due to e.g. maintenance. The idle ships have a total capacity of 721,300 teu.

Of these 122, Maersk has pulled 29 ships with a total capacity of 281,400 teu while 2M Alliance partner MSC is in second place with 13 ships pulled out of operations, amounting to 119,000 teu.

English edit: Christian Radich Hoffman