Mediterranean Shipping Company, the world’s biggest container carrier, will deploy 12 vessels under the Indian flag, Chief Executive Officer, Soren Toft said on Monday.
Toft was part of a Global Maritime CEO Roundtable chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the India Maritime Week held in Mumbai between October 27 and 31.
“India is a key country for MSC with continued strong development across shipping, ports, and logistics. As part of the discussions, we also confirmed our commitment to deploy 12 vessels under the Indian flag, strengthening our long-term partnership and support for India’s maritime ambitions,” Toft wrote on his LinkedIn handle.
The ships that are planned to be converted to the Indian flag will have capacities ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs). A TEU is the standard size of a container and a common measure of capacity in the container business.
With MSC’s move, all the world’s top three container shipping lines will run ships flying the Indian tricolour.
When the dozen ships are flagged in India, Mediterranean Shipping Company will become India’s third largest private shipowner by fleet size after the Great Eastern Shipping Co Ltd and Seven Islands Shipping Ltd.
By bringing a dozen of its ships under the Indian flag, Mediterranean Shipping Company will sail past its rivals AP Moller – Maersk and CMA CGM, who have converted two and four container ships, respectively, to the Indian flag in recent months.
(source: ET Infra)
