World's shipping firms are going super-sized

The hulking container ships that transport sneakers, bananas and barbie dolls around the world keep getting bigger. So are the companies that own them.
 
A massive consolidation is underway in the $500 billion global industry and the survivors now enjoy big economies of scale and increased demand, one year after excess capacity caused the sector’s worst-ever crisis — the bankruptcy of South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping.
 
Asia’s largest container line, China’s Cosco Shipping Holdings, last month said it would pay more than $6 billion for rival Orient Overseas International, owner of the world’s biggest vessel - a carrier longer