MSC strengthened its position as the world’s largest container shipping company in 2025, widening the gap over rival Maersk through another year of aggressive fleet expansion that outpaced every other major carrier. According to the DynaLiners Trades Review 2026 , MSC ended the year operating 971 containerships with a total fleet capacity of 7.136 million TEU , having added approximately 832,000 TEU and 92 vessels during the year. The Swiss carrier also became the first liner operator to surpass 900 ships and later crossed the 7 million TEU fleet milestone following the delivery of MSC Salerno . The scale of MSC’s expansion is particularly striking. The carrier’s additional capacity alone would have been large enough to rank as approximately the world’s ninth-largest container shipping company , illustrating the unprecedented pace at which it continues to grow. Top 10 container shipping companies ranked by operated fleet capacity at the end of 2025. MSC strengthened its position as the industry’s largest carrier, widening its lead over Maersk while most major liner operators continued expanding their fleets. Source: Dynamar, DynaLiners Trades Review 2026. The gap with Maersk continues to widen MSC’s leadership is no longer simply a matter of holding first place. At the end of 2025, MSC’s operated fleet stood at 7.136 million TEU , compared with 4.612 million TEU for second-ranked Maersk, a difference of more than 2.5 million TEU . While MSC expanded fleet capacity by 13.2% during the year, Maersk recorded growth of 4.5% , highlighting the increasingly different pace at which the two companies are expanding. The widening gap reflects MSC’s continued strategy of combining large-scale newbuilding deliveries with an active second-hand acquisition programme, enabling the carrier to increase capacity far more rapidly than its closest competitors. Competition remains strong behind the market leader Although MSC continues to p