With the delivery of the “MSC Migsan”, the Mediterranean Shipping Company’s fleet has reached quadruple digits for the first time. The Swiss shipping company has recently extended its lead over the competition even further.
According to data from the Asian agency Linerlytica, MSC is the first shipping company in the world to have a fleet of this size. The delivery of the container ship “MSC Migsan”, which was built at the Chinese shipyard Zhoushan Changbong, tipped the scales. The newbuilding has a capacity of 11,480 TEU and thus significantly increases the shipping company’s overall capacity once again.
It was only last year that MSC reached the milestone of 7 million TEU capacity. The shipping company now has a capacity of around 7.3 million TEU. The majority of the ships – around 740 – are owned by the Swiss company, while the remaining ships have been chartered. The charter ratio of around 37% is similar to that of its closest competitors: as data from Alphaliner shows, the ratio of chartered ships to the total fleet in the top 5 shipping companies is between 35% and 40%.
However, MSC’s growth course is not yet complete. In absolute terms, the shipping company has the largest order book in the world, with over 120 ships with a capacity of more than 2 million TEU to be delivered in the coming years. MSC could thus approach the 10 million TEU mark in terms of total capacity in the future – although a significant proportion of the newbuilds are likely to be used to replace older tonnage.
The privately managed company, which was founded in 1970, has recently undergone a generational change. Founder and owner Gianluigi Aponte handed over ownership of the shipping company to his children Diego and Alexa at the end of last year.
