MSC Fleet Surpasses 7 Million TEU Milestone

Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), the world’s largest container shipping line, has reached another record-breaking milestone, with new data showing its fleet now exceeding 7 million TEU.

The Geneva-headquartered company, led by Soren Toft, currently operates a fleet totaling 7,002,757 TEU, alongside an orderbook exceeding 2 million TEU. To put this in perspective, MSC’s active fleet alone is larger than the combined capacity of the Gemini Cooperation - the alliance between Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd on the main east-west routes. It also surpasses the collective fleets of Premier Alliance members Yang Ming, HMM, and Ocean Network Express (ONE), even without including its newbuild orders.

Last week, MSC acquired the Newnew Star 2, a 3,534 TEU vessel built in 2007, from Chinese company Hainan Yangpu Newnew Shipping. The ship is expected to be renamed MSC Rabat IV, according to Alphaliner. This purchase - one of roughly 400 secondhand vessels MSC has bought during the 2020s - helped the company cross the 7 million TEU threshold, a figure unlikely to be rivaled by competitors anytime soon.

Over the past decade, MSC has tripled its size, driven by an extensive newbuild program and an aggressive expansion in the secondhand ship market. The company overtook Maersk at the start of 2022 to become the world’s largest container carrier, ending the Danish line’s 25-year dominance at the top of the global rankings.