The last 10 years have seen two important trends,which represent two sides of the same coin. On the one hand,ships are becoming bigger, and on the other hand the number of compsnies in most markets is diminishing(figure 2.5)
As regards vessels size, since 2004 the average container-carrying capacity of the largest ship in the 159 countries cover by UNCTAD's database has almost double, from 2812 TEU 10 years ago to 5540 TEU in 2013. The size of the largest existing ships has also almost double during these 10 years, and although the new ultra-large container carriers are only feploy on a small number of routes,they have push the previously use shipd out of this market,which have had to find cargo on other routes.