Container shipping is one of the most important and necessary means of cargo transportation through sea routes. A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal freight transport and now carry most seagoing non-bulk cargo. Container ship capacity is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). Typical loads are a mix of 20-foot (1-TEU) and 40-foot (2-TEU) ISO-standard containers, with the latter predominant.
Here are the top 20 biggest container shipping companies in the world.
| Rank | Company | Total TEU |
| 1. | Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) | 4,832,709 |
| 2. | Maersk | 4,185,693 |
| 3. | CMA CGM | 3,409,776 |
| 4. | COSCO Shipping Lines (COSCO) | 2,886,908 |
| 5. | Hapag-Lloyd | 1,798,866 |
| 6. | Evergreen Marine Corporation | 1,668,555 |
| 7. | Ocean Network Express (ONE) | 1,534,426 |
| 8. | HMM Co. Ltd. | 816,365 |
| 9. | Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation | 705,614 |
| 10. | Zim Integrated Shipping Services (ZIM) | 566,935 |
| 11. | Wan Hai Lines | 440,921 |
| 12. | Pacific International Lines (PIL) | 294,281 |
| 13. | Shandong International Transportation Corporation (SITC) | 167,597 |
| 14. | Korea Marine Transport Corporation (KMTC) | 148,659 |
| 15. | Zhonggu Logistics Corporation | 147,834 |
| 16. | X-Press Feeders | 143,767 |
| 17. | IRISL Group | 136,606 |
| 18. | Unifeeder | 133,202 |
| 19. | Sea Lead Shipping | 117,550 |
| 20. | Sinokor Merchant Marine | 106,369 |
