After taking delivery of the 16,000 teu MSC Germany this week, Swiss-headquartered carrier MSC broke another record by becoming the first container line to reach 900 ships in its fleet.
According to Alphaliner, the world’s largest shipping line’s total fleet capacity, including those of its subsidiaries, now amounts to 6.47m teu, around 2m teu ahead of second-placed Maersk Line.
“The MSC Group fleet, which also comprises ships of the Aponte-controlled carriers Medlog, Log-In Logistica, and WEC Lines, now consists of 609 owned ships and 291 time-chartered units.
“In this context, Alphaliner also counts tonnage under ‘quasi-owned’ set-ups, such as long-term bare boat charters with a purchase obligation, or similar arrangements as ‘owned’, when the ships are managed in-house by MSC,” it said in its weekly analysis.
The latest addition to its fleet is the fifth in a series of 12 vessels ordered by MSC from Chinese yard Yangzijiang in October 2022.
In all, MSC currently has a further 132 vessels under construction and “could be closing in on the 1,000-ship mark in the coming years”.
The analysts also tipped MSC as the likely identity of an unnamed European shipowner believed to be in discussions to order a series of LNG-fueled ultra large container vessels.
“Shipbroking sources claim that a European owner, believed to be an ocean carrier, is in talks with several shipyards in China, requesting proposals for a series of ten 21,000 teu container ships.
“Alphaliner understands that the tender is of ships with LNG dual-fuel propulsion, but this remains to be confirmed.
“The identity of the carrier remains undisclosed, but, so far, only MSC has made a push towards ultra-compact ‘PNPX’ (‘post-neo-panamax’) vessels with an intake that is higher than (or comparable to) that of a second-generation ‘MGX-23’ (‘megamax-23’),” it writes today.
Meanwhile, Alphaliner also noted that MSC is the largest provider of reefer slots to perishable shippers, with some 20% of its total fleet – amounting to 651,000 teu – capable of transporting refrigerated containers.
Although smaller in overall size, CMA CGM and Maersk both have a slightly higher proportion of reef slots, with 23.3% and 23.2% respectively.
Alphaliner data shows that the European carriers, as well as Zim, all have over 20% of the fleets dedicated to reefer traffic, while Asian carries have a smaller share.
“Alphaliner’s annual reefer count once more shows that the fleets of Asian carriers are typically less reefer-heavy with ‘reefer-to-fleet’ ratios between 16.2% (Cosco Group) and 18.5% (ONE).
“Some of these carriers, however, raised their ‘cool’ capacity by double digit figures in over the past twelve months, with recent newbuildings often having a somewhat higher number of plugs,” it says.
