MSC has overtaken Maersk Line to become the world’s biggest shipping line, in terms of vessel capacity.

MSC has overtaken Maersk Line to become the world’s biggest shipping line, in terms of vessel capacity. According to figures recently published by IFW, MSC’s containerships have a total capacity of 1.84 million TEU while Maersk Line vessels lag behind with a mere 1.82 million TEU.

But that’s not the whole story. The figures do not include vessels owned and operated by Maersk’s sister shipping lines, Safmarine and MCC Transport. If you add these on, and the ships they charter, you add another 185,000 TEU onto the Maersk tally sheet making it still the biggest by a nautical mile.

The fight is on.

Comment: 1.84million TEUs rolls off the tongue nicely but what, exactly does that look like?  Well, unless The Mover’s Casio calculator has gone into melt-down, if you strung all those containers in a line it would reach from London to Hanoi – maybe a bit further.  That’s a lot of cargo on the seas at any one time.