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MSC announced the launch of its new service, Britannia, which will enhance port connections via a unique corridor from China and Vietnam to Liverpool, UK.

This new loop offers access to the port of Vung Tau, Vietnam, establishing a direct service to Liverpool, UK, and MSC’s hubs in Rotterdam, Netherlands; Antwerp, Belgium; and Hamburg, Germany. It also connects to destinations in Scandinavia and the Baltics, thereby expanding the company’s coverage from China and Vietnam to the UK and Northwest Continent.

The first sailing will be the vessel MSC DENISSE X on 1 July, voyage number QB427W.

The full rotation is as follows:

Shanghai, China > Ningbo, China > Yantian, China > Vung Tau, Vietnam > Liverpool, UK > Rotterdam, Netherlands > Antwerp, Belgium > Hamburg, Germany > London Gateway, UK > Singapore, Singapore >Shanghai, China

Furthermore, MSC announced the launch of an additional new weekly service, Carioca, connecting Asia with the East Coast of South America.

This service will enhance coverage and increase connectivity and frequency with Asia on this trade route, complementing MSC’s existing Ipanema and Santana services.

Specifically, the Carioca service will:

– Extend port coverage by adding calls to Itapoa and Rio de Janeiro
– Improve connections to Navegantes, Vitoria, and the River Plate region via Rio de Janeiro
– Increase sailing frequency from Korea and China to South Brazil (Santos and Paranagua)

The full rotation will be as follows:

Busan, South Korea > Shanghai, China > Ningbo, China > Shekou, China > Singapore, Singapore > Rio de Janeiro, Brazil >Paranagua, Brazil > Itapoa, Brazil > Santos, Brazil > Itaguai, Brazil > Colombo, Sri Lanka > Singapore, Singapore > Busan, South Korea

The inaugural sailing is scheduled to depart from Busan on 19 July, with MSC YOKOHAMA, voyage QI429A.

Source: Container News

MSC accounted for half of the capacity growth in the Asia-Europe lanes that resulted from the diversion to the Cape of Good Hope due to the Red Sea crisis.

According to Alphaliner’s latest report, MSC added 279,000 TEUs to services operated as part of its 2M alliance with Maersk Line, and 208,500 TEUs for its standalone services, such as the “Dragon” Far East-Mediterranean loop and the “Swan” Far East-North Europe-Baltic loop.

The capacity additions of 488,500 TEUs amounted to a 54% increase in slot supply from MSC, giving the Swiss-Italian market leader a 22% market share on the Asia-Europe lane, compared with about 16% for its nearest rival, Maersk.

Asia-Europe capacity now stands at 6.3 million TEUs, up 19% year-on-year, as liner operators add more ships to alleviate the effects of the longer sailing time.

Despite the imminent breakup of the 2M alliance in early 2025, MSC’s fleet growth has allowed the 2M to become the largest mega-alliance on the trade with a market share of 33.4%, based on the tonnage provided (up from 32.4% a year ago).

By contrast, the market share of the Ocean Alliance is down to 33% (from 37.5% in February 2023) as CMA CGM, COSCO Shipping Lines, OOCL and Evergreen did not take delivery of many newbuildings and are still struggling to fully staff all their Asia-Europe loops.

THE Alliance’s market share also fell to 23.3%, from 25.7% last year, after it suspended its FE5 Southeast Asia-North Europe in November 2023.

While many of the opportunistic newcomers which entered the market during the Covid-19-fuelled boom have exited, except Tailwind Shipping, this gap has been filled by Russia-focused new players, such as OVP Shipping, New New Shipping and Safetrans.

Alphaliner noted that while these operators use small ships, the capacity deployed by such non-alliance carriers has doubled from 154,600 to 308,300 TEUs in the past year, giving them a total market share of 5%.

Source: Container News

MSC was the most reliable top-14 carrier in June 2023, with 70.6% schedule reliability, followed by Maersk with 69.9%, according to a recent analysis of Sea-Intelligence.

MSC was the only carrier with schedule reliability of more than 70%, while the other six carriers (including Maersk) had schedule reliability ranging from 60% to 70%. Six of the remaining seven carriers had schedule reliability of 50%-60%, with HMM (48.3%) being the only one with less than 50%.

In addition, MSC was the only top-14 carrier to have an M/M gain in June 2023, although a modest 0.3% point increase, with two of the remaining 13 carriers experiencing double-digit M/M reductions. On a year-on-year basis, however, all 14 carriers improved by double digits, with Wan Hai improving by the most, 35.2% points.

Additionally, the global schedule reliability, which has been increasing throughout the year, marked its first M/M decrease of 2.5 percentage points falling to 64.3% in June. However, schedule reliability is up 24.4 percentage points year-on-year.

In contrast, the average delay for late vessel arrivals improved slightly by 0.1 days reaching 4.36 days. In the last three months (including June), the average delay for late vessel arrivals has been within 0.03 days, while on a Y/Y level, the average delay figure was 2.01 days lower.

Source: Container News