Maersk Line can't keep up with its rivals when it comes to container fleet size. These days, new container ships are flooding into the world's seas, but the fleet growth of the industry's largest carrier, A.P. Moeller-Maersk's Maersk Line, is the lowest among the major players, according to data from analyst Alphaliner, which has reviewed the growth of each carrier's fleet capacity during the last 12 months.

Maersk Line's fleet only increased by 22,900 teu, to 2.63 million teu, corresponding to less than 1 percent, while growth rates were much greater at the carrier's closest competitors.

For instance, the two second-largest carriers, MSC and CMA CGM, with whom Maersk Line recently announced a collaboration, saw their fleets grow by 5 and 11 percent, respectively. And Taiwanese Evergreen was particularly busy naming ships: the carrier took delivery of ships for a total capacity of 156,000 teu, which corresponds to a fleet growth of 24 percent compared to July 1st last year.

In total, Alphaliner puts the growth among the 21 largest carriers at an average of 6.3 percent - and it's worth noting that this happened at a time when growth in traffic in the 30 largest ports was only 2.7 percent.

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