MSC set to cut ship numbers

The once fast-expanding company that runs the world?s second-biggest container ship fleet is set to slash ship numbers in the face of the sector?s crisis, its chairman has told the Financial Times. Gianluigi Aponte, chairman of Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), said that the company was aiming to reduce its ship numbers but increase their average size which would keep overall capacity stable. As recently as a year ago, most of MSC?s huge order book of ships, which represent more than 40% of the line?s current ships according to AXS-Alphaliner, was expected to increase the fleet?s overall size significantly. Aponte, the Italian who founded MSC in 1969, was speaking this week after the launch of the MSC Splendida, the largest cruise ship in the Mediterranean and owned by MSC Cruises.

On the container line, he said that because of the economic crisis and the container shipping slump it triggered, it had had to shift focus from expansion to absorbing ships it had on order. It had disposed of ships both by scrapping and handing back chartered ships when their time charters expired.

“When the crisis hit, there were not many alternatives,” Aponte said. “The first was to scrap older vessels. Many of our vessels were older than 30 years, so were due to be scrapped anyway. “The crisis means that they will not automatically be replaced, and that we just use time charter vessels when needed.”

The company, which has been a leader in the trend towards larger container ships, was also “re-dimensioning” its fleet, which Alphaliner puts at 416, Aponte said.

The average size of each ship would increase. “The capacity will remain the same, but we will have less ships in the fleet,” he said. Although not as dramatic, the global downturn was also affecting MSC?s expanding cruise business, which now accounts for about 8% of group sales. The company recently took delivery of the MSC Splendida and will next March take delivery of the MSC Magnifica.