Alphaliner reports that Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), the world’s largest container shipping line, has bought the 2007-built, 3,534 teu Newnew Star 2 from Chinese owner Hainan Yangpu Newnew Shipping last week. The ship – expected to be renamed MSC Rabat IV – is one of around 400 second-hand ones bought by MSC in the 2020s.
Further content is only available for registered users.
With this purchase, and with an orderbook in excess of 2m TEUs, MSC saw it surpassed the 7m TEUs mark, a size unlikely to be matched by its competitors anytime soon.
To put their current fleet in perspective, it is larger than the combined fleet of the Gemini Cooperation – a rival offering on the main east-west trades made up of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd. Even if you do not include their orderbook – MSC is larger than the combined fleets of the Premier Alliance members, a grouping of Asian liners, Yang Ming, HMM, and Ocean Network Express (ONE).
MSC has tripled in size over the past decade via a massive newbuild campaign and in the second-hand markets. The company became the world’s largest liner by operated container vessel capacity at the beginning of 2022, surpassing Maersk, which had been at the top of the rankings for more than a quarter of a century. As a result, it has seen Switzerland becoming one of the top ship-owning countries in the world.