Intra-Europe shipping is seeing a sharp rise in the deployment of 8,000+ teu vessels in the Mediterranean, according to industry analysts Alphaliner.
The number of vessels above 8,000 teu trading in the Mediterranean has nearly doubled in just one year, climbing from nine to sixteen.
A jump of 78%, compared to a year ago in a trade where the average ship size today is 1,870 teu.
MSC remains the driving force behind this big-ship push, operating nine of the sixteen large vessels, up from six of nine a year ago. Its new additions include the MSC GISELLE (9,411 teu), MSC ELMA (9,408 teu), the sisters MSC LAGOS X and MSC NAIROBI X (9,403 teu each) and MSC BRITTANY (9,288 teu).
COSCO SHIPPING Lines has doubled its footprint to two units, while Hapag-Lloyd keeps operating a single large ship, the SOFIA EXPRESS (8,750 teu).
Of note, most of the biggest intra-Europe vessels (14 out of 16) are operating in the North Europe – Mediterranean service segment, due to the relatively long distance compared to intra-regional traffic.
Source: Alphaliner
