The records continue to tumble for Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), the world’s largest container carrier, with the latest data from Alphaliner showing the Geneva-based boxline’s fleet has breached the 7m teu mark.
The Soren Toft-led liner now has a fleet of 7,002,757 teu, with an orderbook on top in excess of 2m teu. Putting MSC’s current fleet in perspective, it is larger than the combined fleet of the Gemini Cooperation – a rival offering on the main east-west trades made up of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd. Likewise, MSC’s fleet today – not including its orderbook -is larger than the combined fleets of the Premier Alliance members, a grouping of Asian liners, Yang Ming, HMM, and Ocean Network Express (ONE).
Last week, MSC bought the 2007-built, 3,534 teu Newnew Star 2 from Chinese owner Hainan Yangpu Newnew Shipping, with the ship expected to be renamed MSC Rabat IV, according to Alphaliner. This ship – one of around 400 secondhand ones bought by MSC in the 2020s, saw the Gianluigi Aponte-founded line crest the 7m teu mark, a size unlikely to be matched by its peers anytime soon.
MSC has tripled in size over the past decade via a massive newbuild campaign and a historic foray in the secondhand markets. It was at the start of 2022 that MSC became the world’s largest liner by operated container vessel capacity, surpassing Maersk, which had been at the top of the rankings for more than a quarter of a century.
MSC’s expansion has propelled landlocked Switzerland to become one of the top shipowning countries in the world. Online pricing portal VesselsValue released its annual chart of the top 10 shipowning nations by total asset value in January, with Switzerland creeping into ninth spot thanks largely to MSC’s container and cruise fleets.
