Ocean shipping worldwide - statistics & facts
Ocean shipping is an integral part of the supply chain for most industries, making it a backbone of global trade. The volume of seaborne trade has been showing a growing trend since 1990. Between 1990 and 2024, the volume of cargo transported by ships more than tripled, from four to nearly 13 billion tons. Hand in hand with the rise in seaborne trade goes the increasing capacity of the global merchant fleet. Between 2013 and 2025, the capacity of the worldwide merchant fleet grew by about 67 percent, reaching over 2.4 million deadweight tons in 2025.
China as the shipbuilding powerhouse
Many of the newest additions to the global merchant fleet are now being built in China. Aside from being home to the busiest container ports worldwide, China has also been the global leader in shipbuilding since 2010, exporting mainly bulk carriers, oil carriers, and container ships. Tonnage volume in the orderbook of Chinese shipbuilders has been steeply increasing, nearly tripling in the period between 2020 and 2024. Shipbreaking, meanwhile, remains centered on India and Bangladesh, which in 2025 accounted for over 60 percent of commercial vessels being dismantled globally.
Geo-political uncertainty spells trouble
As the backbone of global supply chains, ocean shipping is highly susceptible to economic and geo-political pressures. As of early 2026, shipping through the Suez Canal remained significantly reduced compared to 2023 levels due to attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. Instead, shipping fleets have largely been diverted around the Cape of Good Hope, which has seen an increase in trade volume of roughly 100 percent. between January 2023 and January 2026. This was one of the factors leading to record-high container freight rates in 2024, scratching the 6,000 U.S. dollar threshold. Rates have since returned closer to those in early 2023 but prices remain variable.
If tensions in the Middle East recede, shipping routes may shift back to the Suez Canal, bringing down transport distances and potentially reducing shipping demand. In addition, the trade tensions between the United States and its trading partners, are creating volatility in global trade that are adding to an uncertain outlook for the global shipping industry.Ìý
