Driven by an aggressive strategy of new buildings and ship purchases, Alphaliner reports that the total count now stands at 837 ships totalling 5.98 million teus, which includes 539 owned ships of about 3 million teus.
Two years ago, MSC had overtaken Maersk to become the largest fleet operator by growing faster. While MSC has been scrapping its ageing fleet as well, having torched seven older ships of 14,000 TEUs this year, but the number of new builds being added is far higher with 28 new buildings, amounting to 324,000 TEUs, that the operator has received over the same period. It is said that MSC’s fleet will still outnumber the incoming Gemini Cooperation to be formed by Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd in the coming months.
