MSC owns largest fleet of old container ships in the world

According to analyst Alphaliner, MSC Shipping Line controls nearly 25% of all old container ships 20 years old or older, and is the largest owner of old container ships in the world today.

Container ship of MSC Shipping Line

Container ship of MSC Shipping Line (Photo: UlfKornfeld)

In its weekly report, Alphaliner highlighted that 20% of its container fleet capacity, equivalent to less than 3 million TEUs, is currently 20 years old or more. There are currently about 1,200 container ships that are 20 years old or more.

The largest owner by far of this old tonnage is MSC Shipping Line, which controls nearly 25% of the global fleet. MSC has 212 ships 20 years old or older with a total capacity of 718,000 TEU. Most of this capacity comes from the company's used ship trading activities since August 2020 with 330 ships, of which 145 are 20 years old or older.

The next largest owner of second-hand loads is Maersk with just 48 vessels, followed by Evergreen with 36 vessels.

With container shipping facing severe overcapacity due to record newbuilding deliveries, this older fleet appears to be ripe for recycling. However, this may not happen. Up to now this year, only 70 old ships with a capacity of 140,000 TEU have been recycled.

“However, many vessels remain in sound technical condition or perfectly fit for certain trades where very little -or no replacement- is on the way. This is especially true in the smaller sizes,” commented Alphaliner.

“As a result, a lot of ships in this age group will likely continue to trade in the coming years, especially carrier tonnage, irrespective of the market headwinds or tougher environmental regulations.”

The report notes that very few of the ships 20 years old or older have been retrofitted for decarbonization, and fewer than 100 are equipped with scrubber systems.

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