Global shipping consultancy Drewry said the port throughput of the world’s 19 global terminal (GTOs) showed a strong recovery in 2024, growing by 7.2% year-on-year to 928 million twenty-foot units (TEU).

In its latest annual review and forecast of global container terminal operators, 19 companies met the criteria to be included, with the likes ofitsui O.S.K. Lines, Nippon Yusen and Yang Ming dropping out of Drewry’s ranking, while Ocean Network Express (ONE) its debut in the global rankings.

The GTOs outperformed the global market, with their equity-adjusted throughput growing by an average of 7.7%-on-year, increasing the GTOs’ share of the global market from 48.9% in 2023 to 49.2% 2024.

PSA International remained at the top of the equity-adjusted ranking, with an equity-adjusted throughput of 67.2 TEU, up by 7.3% year-on-year.

Since late 2019, a persistent trend in the industry has been the rising status what Drewry defines as hybrid terminal operators.

The terminal operating divisions of several of the world’s leading liner shipping companies – the MSC Group (TiL and A), CMA CGM (CMA Terminals and Terminal Link) and, most recently, Hapag-Lloyd (Hanseatic Global Terminals) – seen their positions in the ranking consolidated.

These divisions, which are wholly or mostly owned by shipping lines, operate terminals primarily on the same commercial principles as the leading independent operators PSA International, Ports China, DP World and HKT – but with the added assurance of volume due to their ownership match.

“These operators have pursued aggressive expansion strategies, dominated by M&A, which is often the only way into mature port markets,” said Eleanor Hadland, a senior analyst for ports and terminals at Drewry, the report’s author.

Bolstered by the profits accrued during the 2019-2020 global pandemic, the cashrich shipping lines ploughed some of their earnings back into the terminal sector, with the aim of controlling the operating performance and cost base of key gateway ports and improving the interface between evolving maritime and land-based networks.

Particularly the MSC Group and CMA CGM have significantly expanded their terminal portfolio during the past five years, and neither signs of letting up.

For this year, global container handling capacity is forecast to grow by 4.8%, or an increase of 64 million TEU, Hadland described as “the largest annual increase in absolute terms since the global financial crisis”.

This reflects the buoyant market conditions in the immediate post-pandemic, when ports and terminals were congested almost everywhere, prompting a wave of terminal upgrading and expansion projects.

While M&A remains a key driver of capacity growth the global GTOs, greenfield projects are back in vogue, particularly in emerging markets

A total of 14 global terminal operators have one or more newbuild projects in their development pipeline. Four operators – CMA CGM,ani, MSC and AD Ports – are expected to add 3 million TEU or more of new build capacity by 2029.

Emerging remain the location of choice for newbuild projects, with two or more of the global terminal operators investing in terminal construction in Vietnam, Egypt, India and Morocco.

Meanwhile in mature markets, global terminal operators typically invest in the expansion and upgrade of existing assets, while the expansion of the global container fleet continues to be a key driver of capital spending.ued advancements in terminal operating systems (including the application of AI) are also aiding the shift towards higher-intensity yard systems, such as automated stacking crane systems, by global operators.