GIANLUIGI Aponte has never been accused of thinking small.

Consider MSC’s orderbook. If the carrier’s newbuilding programme were spun off as a standalone shipping line, it would already rank alongside Hapag-Lloyd in fleet size. Delivered tomorrow, MSC’s backlog alone would form the world’s fifth-largest container carrier, trailing only Cosco among the industry’s established operators.

That orderbook continues to grow. Lloyd’s List revealed this week that MSC has commissioned a further 10 LNG-fuelled, 20,000 teu vessels at China’s Hengli Heavy Industries, taking its newbuilding pipeline to 166 ships with a combined capacity approaching 3m teu. More than 2m teu of that total will come from 99 vessels exceeding 20,000 teu, while a further 17 ships fall within the 15,000-19,999 teu range.

The headline is not simply that MSC is becoming bigger. It is that the carrier is reshaping the role of the industry’s largest ships.

For two decades, vessels above 20,000 teu have been largely confined to a small number of high-volume trade lanes, principally Asia-Europe, where cargo density and port infrastructure could support their deployment. The model was constrained as much by convention as by economics.

MSC’s orderbook challenges that assumption.

The sheer volume of ultra-large tonnage entering its fleet will make megamax vessels less of a specialist asset and more of a standard building block of network design. In doing so, it will extend the reach of ships once reserved for a handful of trunk routes across a far broader range of deep sea trades.

That shift carries consequences well beyond MSC. Ports will face mounting pressure to deepen channels, lengthen berths and invest in higher-reach cranes. Terminal operators will need to accelerate capital spending, while rival carriers may be forced to reassess long-term fleet strategies and network structures.

MSC is already preparing for that future. Through Terminal Investment Ltd and stakes in hubs such as Lome, King Abdullah Port and Vizhinjam, it is building the infrastructure required to support a world in which 20,000-24,000 teu ships become increasingly commonplace.

The company is positioning itself not for the market of 2030, but for the trade patterns of 2040, when economies such as India may generate the cargo volumes needed to justify megamax deployment on far more routes.

For decades, ultra-large container ships were exceptional assets deployed on exceptional trades. MSC’s orderbook breaks that logic. The carrier is not merely adding capacity; it is redefining the geography of container shipping.

The question is no longer where MSC will deploy its megamax fleet. It is where it will not.

Richard Meade
Editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s List

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