SIMIC

The carrier has taken its orderbook to a record of 1.96 million TEU, equivalent to 43 per cent of its current fleet, according to Linerlytica, reports Singapore's Splash 247.

Putting MSC's giant orderbook in perspective, it is larger than the entire extant fleet of Germany's largest liner, Hapag-Lloyd, which is the world's fifth biggest containerline.

Adding perspective, MSC's orderbook is larger than the combined orderbooks of Maersk, CMA CGM and Cosco, the world's second, third and fourth largest liners, respectively.

By Splash estimates, MSC's orderbook now stands at above 25 per cent of all boxships on order in terms of TEU slots. So large and extreme is the Geneva-based carrier's order tally that it no longer fits in the standard lay-out on Alphaliner's popular top 100 rankings site.

With record deliveries coming in 2023 and 2024 for MSC and the global liner industry, speculation is growing that many orders will be deferred. Today's global orderbook, for which MSC accounts for approximately 27 per cent, stands at around 7.2 million TEU, significantly higher than the previous 6.6 million TEU record set in 2008.

The number of secondhand container vessels bought by MSC has also made plenty of headlines in the 26 months since the carrier embarked on an unprecedented ship buying spree in August 2020.

In the space of just over two years, the carrier has bought around 240 secondhand ships according to Alphaliner.

While historically MSC, whose roots date back to 1970, has had a strong focus on chartering in ships, this has changed during liner shipping's record earnings period of the last couple of years. Since the start of 2020, MSC's share of owned ships increased to 69 per cent from 51 per cent, according to Linerlytica.

MSC's actions as the market turns will help dictate market conditions. Not only will other carriers be hoping it defers delivery of many of its newbuilds in the coming couple of years, a massive clear-out of older tonnage for recycling is on the cards for MSC in 2023 and 2024, with many analysts expecting liner scrapping to hit historic high levels soon.