Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has reached a new milestone by surpassing 7.2 million TEUs of total capacity in its fleet of container ships, allowing it to maintain its position as the largest shipping operator in the world with a 21.4% share of the global market, according to data published by Alphaliner.
The Geneva-based shipping company currently operates 980 vessels in active service, a figure that places it at the threshold of the symbolic barrier of 1,000 ships. Of that total, 727 vessels with a combined capacity of 4.55 million TEUs are owned by it, while another 253 ships totaling 2.65 million TEUs operate under charter agreements, according to Alphaliner's figures. Additionally, MSC has a backlog of orders of 2.18 million TEUs, granting it the fourth-highest ratio between order book and existing fleet among the ten leading operators in the sector.
This record represents a new chapter in MSC's upward trajectory since it overtook A.P. Moller-Maersk in January 2022 to reach the top of the global ranking. At that time, Alphaliner data showed that MSC's fleet could transport 4,284,728 twenty-foot equivalent units, surpassing Maersk by just 1,888 TEUs, with both shipping companies sharing a market share of 17%.
Since then, MSC has progressively widened the gap with its immediate competitor, aiming to become in 2024 the first shipping company in history to reach 20% market share, surpassing the previous record set by Maersk in 2018 at 19.4%.
The shift at the top of the sector ended decades of Maersk's dominance, which entered the container trade in 1975 and for a long time was a benchmark in the industry, repeatedly breaking records with the construction of the largest vessels. In recent years, the Danish shipping company has directed its investments towards ships capable of sailing with carbon-neutral fuels, as part of its decarbonization strategy.
Despite having ceded the crown in capacity, Maersk retains an advantage in terms of ownership of its vessels. MSC operates with approximately 65% of its capacity coming from chartered ships, while for Maersk that proportion stands at 42%.
Since 2020, Soren Toft has been at the helm of MSC, who was previously considered the natural successor at Maersk before his high-profile signing with the Geneva-based company.
The container shipping industry has undergone profound transformations since the pandemic, when demand for consumer goods strained the available capacity of vessels and caused freight rates to spike by 81% in 2021, according to the Shanghai containerized freight index.