MSC Reaches 900 Ships In Its Fleet

04/24/2025

It owns 609 container ships and operates another 291 on charter basis.

MSC is the first shipowner in the world to reach an availability of 900 container ships. This was revealed by Alphaliner in its latest report. Gianluigi Aponte’s group owns 609 container ships and operates another 291 in charter mode , with a total capacity of 6.5 million TEU. Gianluigi Aponte’s company has 132 units on order with a planned capacity of 2.06 million TEU. If all the new ships are delivered without withdrawals, the capacity could rise to 8.5 million TEU: the company reached the milestone with the delivery of the MSC Germania ship.

Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A., branded as MSC, is an international shipping line founded by Gianluigi Aponte in Italy in 1970. The company is owned by the Aponte family with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, since 1978. It is the world’s largest container shipping company by both fleet size and cargo capacity,^[5] controlling 20% of global container capacity as of July 2024.

As of March 2025, MSC operates about 900 cargo vessels with an intake capacity of 5,505,417 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).^] MSC subsidiaries operate rail freight transport in Portugal and Spain, cruise ships, and cargo aircraft.

MSC operates 524 offices in 155 countries with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and has over 200,000 employees. MSC’s shipping line sails on more than 215 trade routes, calling at over 500 ports. As of August 2023, it operates vessels with a capacity of up to 24,346 TEU, including the world’s largest container ships such as MSC Turkiye and MSC Michel Cappellini.

The company is independent and wholly owned by the Aponte family under the leadership of Diego Aponte. Diego was appointed president and CEO by his father and company founder Gianluigi in October 2014.^[10] In December 2020, Soren Toft became MSC Chief Executive Officer.

Since 1989, MSC has owned the holiday cruise division MSC Cruises.In 2015, MSC started train operations by taking over the cargo division of Comboios de Portugal, and operates container trains over the Iberian peninsula. Its rail operations have later expanded to Italy and beyond, under the name Medway.In 2022, the company launched a cargo airline, MSC Air Cargo.