This is a list of container ships with a capacity larger than 20,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).
Container ships have been built in increasingly larger sizes to take advantage of economies of scale and reduce expense as part of intermodal freight transport.
Primarily, these are the availability of sufficiently large main engines and the availability of a sufficient number of ports and terminals prepared and equipped to handle ultra-large container ships.
Furthermore, some of the world's main waterways such as the Suez Canal and Singapore Strait restrict the maximum dimensions of a ship that can pass through them.
[2][needs update] As of January 2024, the record for the largest container ship is held by MSC's Irina-class with the capacity of 24,346 TEU.