The recovery of the ocean container industry – possibly by late 2016 or 2017 – is to be based around the formation of the new mega alliances and the continued reduction of unit costs, rather than the matching of supply and demand at the individual trade route level, according to Drewry's Container Annual Review & Forecast 2014/15. A different recovery is taking shape, which is unlikely to be built on any improvement in freight rates.

Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk said it would invest billions of dollars in new ships, reap hundreds of millions in savings and announced valuable contracts for its drilling rigs.

The number of container ships afloat has decreased in the first half of 2014 and could fall on an annual basis this year, for the first time in at least 20 years. Although the total TEU nominal capacity of the global fleet continues to increase by about 6 percent a year, this growth in capacity now comes solely from the increase in average ship size, not from having more ships.