Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)
Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC) is a Swiss-Italian international shipping line. The company operates in all major ports of the world. It is the world's second-largest shipping line in terms of container vessel capacity.
As of the end of December 2014, MSC was operating 471 container vessels with an intake capacity of 2,435,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). It has a division called MSC Cruises that focuses on holiday cruises.
MSC was founded in Naples in 1970 as a private company by the seafarer Captain Gianluigi Aponte when he bought his first ship, Patricia, followed by Rafaela, with which Aponte began a shipping line operating between the Mediterranean and Somalia. The line subsequently expanded through the purchase of second-hand cargo ships. By 1977, the company operated services to northern Europe, Africa and the Indian Ocean. The expansion continued through the 1980s; by the end of the decade, MSC operated ships to North America and Australia.
In 1989, MSC purchased the cruise ship operator Lauro Lines, renamed to Mediterranean Shipping Cruises (MSC Cruises) in 1995, and subsequently increased the cruising business.
In 1994, the line ordered its first newly constructed ships, which were delivered beginning in 1996 with MSC Alexa. They were built by Italian shipbuilder, Fincantieri.
As of October 2014, Diego Aponte (son of MSC founder Gianluigi Aponte) was named president and chief executive of MSC, taking over from his father who was named group executive chairman. Gianluigi Aponte would continue to oversee all group related activities as well as supporting Diego in shaping the future of MSC.
The company today
As one of the world’s leading container shipping lines with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, MSC operates 480 offices across 155 countries worldwide with over 24,000 employees. MSC’s shipping line sails on more than 200 trade routes, calling at over 315 ports.
MSC operates vessels with a capacity of up to 23,756 TEU, including (as of 2019) the world's two largest container ships, MSC Gülsün[5] and MSC Samar. The company remains independent and wholly owned by the Aponte family under the leadership of Diego Aponte who was appointed President and CEO by his father and company founder Gian Luigi in October 2014.
In May 2014, MSC cruises closed a deal to order two new vessels from the Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri in a 2.1 billion euro order.
In August 2014, MSC ordered a new cruise ship worth up to €3bn ($4.13bn) from STX France. The Saint-Nazaire yard will build two firm ships for €1.5bn. The first ship is due in the first half of 2017, with the second in the first half of 2019. The contracts will provide 16m working hours for the French shipbuilder. The order has been on the cards since February, with a vessel size of around 160,000 gt cited. Passenger capacity will be about 4,000 people.
In December 2014, the MSC shipping line ranked number 6 in Lloyd's List Top 100 Most Influential People in Shipping.
In January 2015, MSC launched the largest container ship, MSC Oscar, with a capacity of 19,224 TEU. Built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and registered in Panama, it joins the Albatross service in January as part of the 2M VSA (Vessel Sharing Agreement between Maersk Line and MSC). Later in 2015 MSC launched three more container ships of same capacity and named MSC Oliver, MSC Zoe and MSC Maya.
In February 2017, MSC purchased a 49% stake into Messina Line, an Italian shipping Line founded in Genoa, Italy in 1929, specialised in intra Mediterranean short sea, and Europe to East and West Africa routes. The company owns 8 Roll-on/roll-off vessels and a Terminal in G enoa port, on top of a container fleet of 65,000 teu.
In January 2018, MSC announced the launch of a regular dedicated Roll-on/roll-off service in between Northern Europe and West Africa,[8] by deploying two car carrier vessels: MSC Immacolata and MSC Cristiana, previously chartered out to other Lines.
In October 2018, MSC decided to charter out its 2 car carriers to Grimaldi Group,[10] replacing them on the service towards West Africa with two Messina Line - ConRO vessels: MSC Cobalto (formerly Jolly Cobalto) and MSC Titanio (formerly Jolly Titanio). The swap of these ships, that were previously deployed on MSC Adriatic Trade in between the ports of Trieste and Izmir, results in view of a tighter collaboration in between MSC and Messina Line.