World News
MSC Adds 400 Second-Hand Boxships to Fleet in Four Years
Container line MSC, the world's largest shipping company, has reportedly added just over 400 second-hand boxships to its fleet in the past four years.
The additions of the Northern Jaguar, Hongkong Bridge, BF Tiger, Najade, Hannah, Lucie, Margarete Schulte and Ludwig Schilte to its fleet in the past ten days take the firm's total second-hand acquisitions to 402 vessels since August 2020, shipping intelligence service Alphaliner reported this week.
The additions in this buying spree represent a total of 1.66 million TEU with an average age of 20 years.
MSC overtook AP Moller-Maersk as the world's largest container line at the start of 2022. The company currently has 6.2 million TEU of capacity in its fleet.
In April 2023 MSC CEO Søren Toft told Ship & Bunker the firm 'didn't get carried away' with its acquisitions.
"It's about growth," he said at the time.
"We bought a lot of second-hand ships because there was significant demand out there from customers in the COVID period.
"Then it's also about fleet renewal -- we have a big fleet, and we have to renew our fleet quite a bit.
"It's about competitiveness and costs; we need to make sure we're not just the biggest company, but the most competitive.
"And it's about replacing a number of charters, because the fact of the matter is that we can actually operate ships that we run and operate ourselves better than the traditional charters."
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| VLSFO | MGO | |||
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| $/mt | +/- | $/mt | +/- | |
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| Houston | 552.00 | 3.00 | 682.00 | 4.00 |
| Fujairah | 555.50 | 7.50 | 753.00 | 1.50 |
| Global 20 Ports Average | 583.50 | 4.00 | 762.50 | 2.50 |
| Global 4 Ports Average | 546.50 | 4.50 | 697.50 | 2.50 |
| Global Average Bunker Price | 632.50 | 2.00 | 811.00 | 1.50 |
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