Maersk could lose the title of the world's largest container shipping company

MSC (Mediterranean Shipping) is expected to overtake its alliance partner Maersk as the world's largest container shipping company within the next two years.

New orders for five 23000 TEU super-large container ships at South Korea's Daewoo Shipyard will bring orders for the Geneva-based container shipping company to 16, with a total capacity of 305352 TEU, according to Alphaliner. 

Daewoo Shipbuilding disclosed this week that orders for each ship were worth $152 million, five of which would be delivered in August 2021. 

This will increase MSC's fleet, including its current charter capacity, to nearly 4 million TEU, a level Maersk has said it wants to maintain. 

In a second-quarter earnings call in August, Maersk CEO Soren Soku confirmed this, adding: "We want to maintain discipline in production capacity and adhere to the standards of about 4 million TEU deployed capacity.Because it helps us improve utilization and reduce unit costs. 

At present, the number of Maersk container ships is about 4.2 million TEU,. The excess is partly due to the fact that many container ships are shelved because of the installation of scrubbers, so their leasing capacity is higher than normal. 

Unlike its 2m Alliance partners, Maersk has been emptying its orders for some time recently and is currently ordering just 45000 TEU. For a long time, it is no longer the largest container ship shipping company. MSC is the current leader, with its 23765 TEU MSC Gulsun serving Asian and Nordic routes and equipped with scrubbers. 

As MSC may threaten its long-term rule as the industry's largest operator, Maersk's board may come under pressure to reconsider its capacity strategy, which in turn could lead it to set new acquisition targets to support its growth. 

By contrast, the strategy influenced by the MSC family can only organically develop its container shipping business, which means it needs to be more aggressive in its market to support increased capacity. 

In January 2015, a heavy partnership with Maersk in the 2m Alliance allowed MSC to grow more naturally than its VSA partners did through acquisitions, and there was even growing concern that it would lag behind. 

"MSC's scrubber program was originally proposed by Mr. Aponte, who said that installing scrubbers to meet IMO2020 was effortless, and our people decided to follow the path of low-sulphur fuel, and now we have paid the price." Manager Maersk said recently. 

He added: "MSC is a little too arrogant and we have to fight to organize them." 

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