Big Get Bigger as MSC and HMM Hit New Milestones in Container Capacity

 

The container sector continues to grow, with attention focused on the carriers’ total orderbook, which is more than 10 million TEU is the largest in history. While all the largest carriers continue to grow, two carriers, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company and HMM, hit significant milestones in their strategies recently.

MSC has for the first time topped the 7 million TEU capacity mark, making its capacity 50 percent larger than the second largest carrier, Maersk. The achievement is especially noteworthy because when MSC became the largest carrier in the segment at the beginning of 2022, it had a capacity of 4.3 million TEU. The company has built some of the largest vessels in the sector, but much of its growth is driven by the secondhand market, where Alphaliner reports MSC acquired around 400 ships in the past five years.

The company hit the new milestone not with a glitzy newbuild but instead a nearly 20-year-old 3,500 TEU bought from a Chinese owner. However, with that addition to the fleet, Alphaliner sets MSC’s total capacity at 7,002,757 TEU, with the company owning about 4.2 million of its capacity. MSC has never fully discussed its strategy in public, but Alphaliner calculates the carrier has another 2.2 million TEU of capacity on order.

HMM joined the elite group of carriers above the 1 million TEU capacity. The company had declared the target a few years ago as part of its growth strategy that began just over five years ago. HMM in 202 was the first to add ships in the 24,000 TEU category with HMM Algeciras and her sisters, 12 in total. Since then, it has added classes of 16,000, 13,000, and 7,500 to 9,000 TEU capacity vessels. 

HMM, like MSC, achieved its milestone without a dramatic newbuild. It is now, Alphaliner calculates at 1,007,180 TEU total capacity with a further 200,000 TEU of capacity on order. The vessel that pushed them past the milestone is the 10,000 TEU Seaspan Brightness, built in 2014 and one of five ships HMM has taken on charter.

Alphaliner highlights that despite the uncertainties created by trade policies and tariffs, the container sector has been booming. August, it reports, was the highest monthly figure for TEU volume handled for the sector. It is a strong growth year for container shipping. China has orders to deliver a further nearly 7.4 million TEU, while South Korea has orders for just over 2 million TEU of new capacity.

In the first half of 2025, Alphaliner points out on a percentage basis, Hapag-Lloyd and COSCO Shipping were the two large carriers that made the biggest capacity additions. Among the top 10 carriers, all added capacity in the first half of 2025, and all have placed orders for more capacity.

While MSC holds the largest orderbook, two other carriers have placed very significant orders. CMA CMG has a further 1.715 million TEU of capacity on order for its fleet, which currently has a total capacity of just under 4.1 million TEU. China’s COSCO also has nearly 1.2 million TEU of capacity on order.

Even with an expected culling of older vessels long overdue, the large carriers are planning for significant growth.