PUBLISHER: Container News (www.container-news.com)
It is a matter of time before MSC surpasses Maersk, becoming the largest container shipping company in the world.
After approximately 20 years, the Danish shipping giant will not be the “king” of the oceans, but “that’s not the end of the world,” according to Maersk’s CEO Soren Skou, who back in July stated that “Our focus is on having a much higher turnover per container we ship.”
The gap between the existing fleets of the two 2M Alliance partners is now just 13,381 TEU, which translates to one New Panamax container vessel, according to Alphaliner data, which also show that the orders MSC will receive in the next months and years are, at the time of writing, significantly more than Maersk’s ones. As a result, MSC’s overtaking of the liner rankings’ top position does not seem to be a temporary condition.