MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company has reached a 20% market share following its massive expansion, according to Alphaliner.
The fleet of the world’s largest ocean carrier is rapidly approaching the next capacity milestone with the 6m-teu mark, it added.
The move results from the Swiss-Italian liner giant outperforming overall market growth.
It has done that by expanding its fleet in secondhand, newbuilding and — to a lesser extent — charter markets.
Alphaliner expects MSC’s fleet to comprise one-fifth of the container ship market following delivery of the 9,600-teu MSC Nicole X (built 2000).
The former AP Moller-Maersk vessel is one of 10 Danish-built, 9,600-teu sister ships acquired by MSC.
It is the latest in a series of former Maersk-controlled vessels bought by the Geneva-based operator.
More recent purchases include the 4,504-teu Maersk Bentonville (built 2006), which joins three sister vessels that MSC has already purchased from its Danish rival.
Alphaliner believes that MSC might have also purchased another three vessels in the seven-ship series, the 4,504-teu Maersk Baltimore, Maersk Boston (both built 2006) and Maersk Brownsville (built 2007).
Massive growth
MSC’s massive growth means it will be able to operate standalone carrier services in a world dominated by liner shipping alliances, Alphaliner said.
That will become more evident towards the end of the year when MSC and Maersk dissolve the 2M Alliance, and Maersk joins Hapag-Lloyd to form Gemini in early 2025.
At that stage, MSC’s fleet capacity and market share are expected to equal that of its two competitors combined, Alphaliner said.
Maersk’s container fleet currently stands at 4.32m teu, or 14.1% market share, while Hapag-Lloyd has 2.1m teu, or 7.2%, market share, the analyst estimates.
But MSC’s fleet growth has been dramatically rising since launching an expansion spree during the pandemic.
By way of comparison, MSC took 37 years to reach a fleet capacity of 1m teu in 2007, passing the 2m teu mark in July 2011 and 3m teu in May 2017, Alphaliner said.
The company’s fleet hit 4m teu in July 2021 before it overtook Maersk as the world’s largest carrier six months later.
The liner giant logged a fleet of 5m teu in May 2023 and has taken a little over 13 months to hit 5,979,650 teu, according to Alphaliner, which said it is “just one big ship delivery away” from 6m teu.
The pandemic also fuelled a major expansion of chairman Gianluigi Aponte’s wealth, as congestion pushed container shipping profit to record highs.
Aponte and his wife, Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, are worth $33.1bn each through their 50% holdings in the Swiss-based container and cruise ship giant, according to a Forbes list of billionaires released in April.
Ironically, MSC is also the main player in the container ship demolition market this year.
The company has scrapped seven vessels so far in 2024, most recently the 1,837-teu MSC Tia II (built 1999) and 965-teu MSC Grace F (built 1991).
“This figure is, however, almost negligible compared to the 27 newbuildings for 322,000 teu that MSC received so far in 2024,” Alphaliner said.
