In the past, MSC has repeatedly used V.Ships to expand its own fleet. Now two more ships are to follow.
Brokers report that the “Chiquita Farmer” and the “Independent Spirit”, two container ships from the fleet managed by V.Ships, have been purchased by MSC. They have a total capacity of 2,546 TEU and a high number of 536 reefer connections. The Aponte shipping company is said to have paid a total of US$40m for both ships.
The two ships have a history in Hamburg. They were built in 2007 as the “Hammonia Fortuna” and “Hammonia Pacificum” in China by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding.
The “Chiquita Farmer” is still on charter to the Great White Fleet (GWF) until the third quarter of 2025 and is deployed between Central America and Northern Europe. The “Independent Spirit” is employed by Wan Hai for the same period and sails between the Middle East and India.
MSC has already acquired 13 ships
By the fall of last year, MSC had already acquired 13 ships from the V.Ships Hamburg fleet. The German offshoot was created in 2019 with the acquisition of the fleet of the former North German shipping company H. Schuldt. As part of the transaction, the 35 ships owned by the Norddeutsche Vermögen Group were transferred to the new entity “Northern Shipping Holding”.
Since then, however, more and more ships have been sold, whether to MSC, Maersk or CMA CGM. As a result, they have generally also left the technical management of V.Ships Hamburg.
Since summer 2020, the Geneva-based liner shipping company has been the undisputed No. 1 in international container shipping. In addition to a huge newbuilding program with a capacity of almost 2 million TEU, the fleet has since been expanded with more than 400 second-hand ships with a total of 1.7 million TEU.
