Letter from the Editor

By Mark Szakonyi

Not snagging the right terminal could be a stinging 30-year mistake.

A string of announcements this summer about major port investments underscores how major ocean carriers are expanding their landside control, upping competition with independent operators and arguably creating another backstop to rate-cutting temptations.

The announcements, within days of each other, included Mediterranean Shipping Co.( MSC), through its Terminal Investment Limited( TiL) arm, investing $ 1.4 billion for a 49 % stake in Adani Vizhinjam Port in southern India, and CMA CGM signing a $ 400 million agreement to develop and operate a multipurpose logistics terminal at the Port of Sohar. Hapag-Lloyd, through its Hanseatic Global Terminals( HGT) arm, doubled its stake in Germany’ s Eurogate Container Terminal Hamburg, of which CMA CGM took a majority stake in November.

As for locking down terminal capacity, Ocean Network Express( ONE) and Hapag-Lloyd are playing catch-up with their larger rivals: CMA CGM, Cosco Shipping, Maersk and MSC. By 2030, HGT plans to add between 10 and 15 ports to its current footprint of 25 terminals. ONE so far this year has announced stakes in terminals in Thailand, South Korea and China.

Less visible is the jockeying for control of the rare marine terminal assets up for grabs in the US. Macquarie’ s coming sale of Maher Terminals in New Jersey offers carriers with strong terminal affiliation in the harbor, such as MSC, a chance to upgrade to the port’ s jewel. The sale also offers carriers such as Hapag-Lloyd, the second-largest supplier of tonnage to the port, an opportunity to lock in landside capacity at the East Coast’ s largest gateway. And the South Carolina Port Authority is considering leasing the Hugh Leatherman Terminal, which temporarily closed in August due to low demand, directly to a marine terminal operator.

Owning terminals ensures carriers have the capacity to support their networks as port congestion increases and they unilaterally offer extra services, such as extended truck gates, to customers. Outside the US, where cargo owners pay terminal handling costs, marine terminal ownership helps carriers shore up their relationships with shippers and fend off rivals, noted Matthew Leech, consultant and former regional CEO at DP World and Ports America.

Hybrid operators, ocean carriers with terminal arms, within a decade more than doubled the share of terminals they control globally, rising to 44.5 % in 2025, according to shipping analyst Drewry, while the share of terminals controlled by stevedores or independent operators, shrank from 70 % to just 50 %. That share would shrink further with the sale of Hutchison Port Holdings to TiL and Cosco.

Several factors are at play. Ocean carriers, aided by pandemic-era record profits, have been acquiring smaller stevedores, with CMA CGM’ s 2023 deal for Global Port Terminals’ two New York-New Jersey terminals as one example. Carriers also have an edge in that they bring their own container volumes to greenfield projects, according to Drewry’ s Annual Review of Global Container Terminal Operators.

The future buyer of Maher Terminals would find it hard to compete without carrier affiliation, Leech said.“ Terminal investments at carrier-controlled facilities in NY-NJ stand to outpace port volumes, and carriers are incentivized to move volumes through their own facilities to meet lease commitments,” he said.“ That will create a tougher environment for independent operators since they don’ t enjoy the same base of cargo to keep their utilization up.”

While carriers pile into landside operations, stevedores have taken a step back, divesting and monetizing their portfolios, according to the Drewry report released in July. For example, DP World in 2022 received $ 5 billion in investment from CDPQ in exchange for a 22 % stake in the former’ s three flagship terminals.

The need to preserve cash for lucrative terminal concessions, including M & A and greenfield project development, means ocean carriers can’ t afford to chase volumes by cutting rates as they did before the pandemic, said Robbert van Trooijen, a former executive with Maersk and P & O Nedlloyd and a Journal of Commerce contributor.

“ If you’ re a large player, you can apply your cash to hunt the last TEU and drive rates down to zero, or you can say,‘ I’ m going to manage my portfolio differently. I’ m going to be a little bit more disciplined in terms of pricing,’” he said.

There are a limited number of terminals to acquire, making not snagging the right terminal a stinging 30-year mistake, van Trooijen said.

Marine terminals may offer better margins than liner operations in favorable times, but they’ re no cash cows, said Dan Smith, principal at consulting firm Tioga Group.

“ Ocean carriers have shown that they have the bargaining power to minimize terminal revenue,” Smith said.

email: mark. szakonyi @ spglobal. com

4 Journal of Commerce | September 7, 2026 www. joc. com