MSC: Fleet Size, Routes & Tracking

Company facts

Founded

1970

Headquarters

Geneva, Switzerland (established there in 1978)

Ownership

Privately held

Fleet capacity

~7.3M TEU (Alphaliner snapshot retrieved 2026-04-30)

Ships

~1,000 vessels (Alphaliner snapshot retrieved 2026-04-30)

Alliance

Independent — MSC does not belong to a shipping alliance

Capacity rank

1

Founded by Gianluigi Aponte and Rafaela Aponte-Diamant. Aponte, a former ship's captain, bought his first vessel (the Patricia) and began a line running between the Mediterranean and Somalia, growing the fleet through acquisition of second-hand ships.

• World's largest container carrier by fleet capacity, having overtaken Maersk for the #1 position on January 6, 2022, and has held it since.
• Operates ships up to ~24,345 TEU, among the largest vessels in the industry.
• Remains family-owned at a scale where every other top-5 carrier is either publicly traded or state-linked — an unusual structure for a company this size in the industry.

Tracking and household goods

• Track a shipment
• Official site

MSC sells container space in bulk to freight forwarders, NVOCCs, and moving companies — it does not generally take bookings directly from individual households. If you're shipping personal belongings, get a quote from a mover, who arranges the carrier booking as part of a full door-to-door service. Ocean carriers vs. moving companies.

Frequently asked questions