MSC's Fleet Officially Surpasses 7 Million TEU, Larger Than the Entire Gemini Alliance Combined

MSC container ship (Photo: Logisticsmanager / Phaata)

Records continue to be broken by Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), the world's largest container line. The latest data from Alphaliner shows that the fleet of the Geneva, Switzerland-based carrier has officially surpassed the 7 million TEU mark.

Currently, MSC's fleet stands at 7,002,757 TEU, along with a massive orderbook of more than 2 million TEU.

Outpacing Rivals in Scale

To put MSC's current scale into perspective, the carrier's fleet (excluding its orderbook) is now larger than the entire combined fleet of the Gemini Cooperation—a key rival on the main East-West trades, which includes Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd.

Similarly, MSC's fleet today is also larger than the total fleet of the Premier Alliance members, an Asian carrier group that includes Yang Ming, HMM, and Ocean Network Express (ONE).

A Historic Acquisition Spree

According to Alphaliner, the 7 million TEU milestone was "breached" last week when MSC acquired the Newnew Star 2 (3,534 TEU, built 2007) from its Chinese owner, Hainan Yangpu Newnew Shipping. The vessel is expected to be renamed the MSC Rabat IV.

This is just one of approximately 400 secondhand vessels that MSC has purchased in the 2020s. The current scale of the carrier, founded by Gianluigi Aponte, is now at a level that rivals are unlikely to match anytime soon.

In just the last decade, MSC has tripled its size through a massive newbuilding campaign and a historic spree on the secondhand market. It was in early 2022 that MSC officially became the world's largest carrier, overtaking Maersk, which had held the number one spot for over a quarter of a century.

MSC's expansion has also turned Switzerland, a landlocked country, into one of the world's top ship-owning nations. VesselsValue's annual rankings in January placed Switzerland 9th in the top 10 ship-owning nations by total asset value, primarily driven by MSC's container and cruise fleets.

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Source: Phaata.com (According to Splash247)

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