MEDITERRANEAN Shipping Company’s first-ever brand new containership has been sold for demolition.
The 3300 TEU MSC Alexa, named after founder Gianluigi Aponte’s daughter, was delivered by Italy’s Fincantieri in 1996 and was followed by MSC Rafaela, named after Mr Aponte’s wife.
Remarkable as it now may seem, although founded in 1970 MSC had until the arrival of AMS Alexa traded entirely with second-hand ships, for which the company became and remains renowned. The Swiss-Italian company’s second-hand purchases included many built for and/or previously serving in Australian trades, including MSC Nuria (ex Australian Venture) and MSC Mirella (ex Australian Exporter).
MSC’s next newbuildings were the 4200/4400 TEU MSC Regina class delivered by South Korea’s Hanjin from 1999, and they were followed by the nine ships of the 6750 TEU MSC Flaminia class from Daewoo from 2001.
At the time of the 1996 deliveries MSC had just 60 ships. Today the carrier controls 850 ships and moves 24.5 million TEU annually.
In August this year Alphaliner reported that MSC-operated fleet capacity now totals more than six million TEU, including 3.07 million TEU on owned ships, and the carrier’s orderbook stood at 1.64 million TEU.
In the past few months the orderbook has risen to 137 vessels, including 10 x 21,000 TEU, 12 + 6 x 19,000 TEU, 10 + 8 x 11,500 TEU, 10 x 10,300 TEU, all in Chinese yards and taking the backlog to almost 2 million TEU.
On the other hand Alphaliner also recently reported that MSC still has 315 ships built in or before 2004, i.e. 20 years or older. In the last four years the company has bought over 390 second-hand ships, and counting.
