By the end of this month, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is poised to surpass the milestone of 5 million TEU container fleet capacity.
MSC is only a few ship deliveries away from reaching the 5 million TEU mark, making it the first liner in history to operate with a capacity exceeding this significant threshold. To provide some context, the total combined capacity of the global fleet was 5 million TEU in the 2000s.
MSC’s fleet currently consists of 753 ships, including chartered and owned vessels. According to data from Alphaliner, as of May 16th, the liner’s container capacity stood at 4,956,720 TEU. With the imminent deliveries of the MSC Michel Cappellini from Yangzijiang and the MSC GEMMA from CSSC, the liner will exceed the 5 million TEU capacity mark.
In addition to acquiring newbuilds, MSC has also been purchasing second-hand ships, having procured 306 vessels since August 2020.
Over the past 8 and a half years, MSC has aggressively expanded its capacity, more than doubling it in the process. Currently, the company has 127 ships on its order books, collectively representing a capacity of 1.66 million TEU. These upcoming deliveries are expected to push the company’s capacity beyond the 6 million TEU mark by mid-2024.
Around 16 months ago, MSC surpassed Maersk as the largest container carrier and has since been on an expansion trajectory. The 2M alliance between Maersk and MSC is set to conclude in 2025, and MSC is viewed as having the scale necessary to operate independently without relying on major alliances.
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