MSC officially became the world's largest container shipping company

MSC was officially recognized as the world's largest container shipping company after surpassing Maersk on Alphaliner's ranking.

container ship MSC

MSC is the world's largest container shipping company

MSC (Mediterranean Shipping Company) started the new year with being recognized as the world's largest container shipping company by capacity. Data analyst and consultant Alphaliner has updated its ranking in the Top 100 and shows MSC in the lead for the first time, overtaking Maersk shipping line by just 1,888 TEU - a fraction of its total capacity 4.3 million TEUs.

As an emerging carrier later in the industry when compared to Maersk - which has dominated the rankings for decades - MSC is expected to continue to accelerate its growth. As a private company, MSC does not publish individual transactions so that industry analysts can see orders for new, chartered and used ships. Alphaliner expects MSC to increase its current capacity by almost a quarter, adding nearly a million TEUs to its current capacity.

Top-20-shipping-lines-in-the-world-2022

Top 20 largest container shipping lines in the world 2022 (Photo: Phaata)

Founded in 1970, and controlled for over 40 years by the Aponte family, MSC has grown from one vessel to its current fleet of 645 vessels with a capacity of 4,284,728 TEUs. The shipping line MSC reports that today it calls at 500 ports on more than 230 shipping routes and handles more than 23 million TEUs annually. One of the factors that has helped MSC accelerate its growth in recent years is the use of chartered vessels and less owned fleets. Currently, MSC is said to own only 260 vessels with a capacity of 1.5 million TEU with nearly two-thirds of the capacity coming from mainly long-term charter vessels.

“It does not mean anything,” Soren Skou, CEO of Maersk told Bloomberg in an interview in late December 2021. Skou, who took the helm of the shipping company in 2016 repeatedly said that he is not focused on scale but instead on a business strategy to grow Maersk into a land and sea logistics company for its customers. Maersk is on track with reporting record results and biggest-ever profit for the Danish shipping line in 2021.

Maersk has a history dating back to 1904 and began operating in the container shipping business in 1975. With one of nine new ships built, the Adrian Maersk left Newark, New Jersey on September 5, 1975, carrying only 385 containers. Under Skou's leadership, Maersk is accelerating investments in the logistics business. He oversaw the sale of tankers and oil and gas businesses. While this year Maersk announced investment in new green technologies and expansion of port operations. In December, Maersk announced its largest-ever acquisition, its planned $3.6 billion acquisition of LF Logistics, a Hong Kong-based logistics company.

The Danish shipping giant currently has a fleet of 738 vessels with a capacity of nearly 4.3 million TEUs. Maersk owns 60% of the fleet of 330 ships. Unlike competitors think, Maersk has yet to announce plans to expand its container fleet. In addition to MSC, other major carriers from CMA CGM to Hapag Lloyd, COSCO, ONE, Evergreen and HMM, have all announced plans to expand at least 20% of their capacity. Maersk made the news in August 2021 with an order for eight 16,000 TEU vessels designed to operate on methanol, but its total orders represent only six percent of current capacity. Unlike all competitors, Maersk also does not order any super-large vessels that exceed the 24,000 TEU mark.

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Source: Phaata.com (According to Maritime-executive / Alphaliner)
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