DynaLiners Trades Review 2025 – The Long Way Around

Dynamar’s latest annual review, titled ‘The Long Way Around’, provides an analysis of developments in the container shipping industry in the past year and a brief look into the future.

The year 2024 review

The year 2024 saw the start of a series of demand spikes. These principally involved North American imports. The first one(s) were to avoid potential port shutdowns due to industrial action. The later ones, starting in 2024, were to pre-empt potential and then avoid announced tariffs imposed on a wide range of goods coming into the United States. With deadlines for these often extended, the spikes would reduce only to reappear, all this occurring well into 2025.

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It was as if these repeated spikes – mini-cycles, if you will – were also in danger of becoming the norm. The container shipping sector’s response to all these challenges – and more – was to exhibit its typical flexibility. For a great part, this was made possible by the record numbers of new ships and capacity delivered to the system. Yet herein lays a danger that looms tantalisingly over the horizon – and is implied within these pages too – once the massive kinks in supply-chains are unravelled. For now though, the carriers performed very well, financially speaking, in both 2024 and the first half of 2025.

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The stories and themes of 2024, some with their origins and/or continuations in the surrounding years, are what you find in the following pages. Throughout, they are supported by the usual array of tables and graphs you have come to expect to give you as complete a picture as is possible.

A wealth of information and statistics

The DynaLiners Trades Review offers qualitative analyses combined with extensive data and statistics across several key themes:

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• Container shipping trades (global, East-West, North/South and regional)
• Carriers (corporate and other developments, alliances, regulations)
• Ports (developments, experiences, terminal operators)
• Ships and containers (fleet developments, design developments, alternative fuels, casualties, shipyards and box manufacturers)
• Non-container trades (multipurpose, heavy-load, vehicle carrier and reefer summaries)
• The DynaLiners Trades review is part of the DynaLiners subscription but can also be ordered separately

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The DynaLiners Trades Review can be ordered separately, but is also part of the DynaLiners portfolio.