There are no technical reasons preventing containerships from getting larger, so economic and strategic considerations will be the source of any barrier. There is a continuing increase in size of ships being ordered, but owners appear to be reluctant to take large steps. The 10,000 TEU mark has not yet been clearly passed, as was expected some years ago. The largest ships are most effective on the Europe�Far East trade route for which seven to nine ships are needed to operate a weekly schedule. Investment in a service deploying 10,000-TEU ships would therefore require a capacity addition of 80,000 TEU; this is a large capacity addition. The increase in the size of the total market and the increase in the size of the global operators show that there are parties that have a market allowing them to deploy bigger ships effectively.