News / MSC orders spark concerns of anti-competitive behaviour and an H2 rate drop

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Swiss-headquartered shipping behemoth MSC has added more container ships to its shopping cart, but there are warnings that action could be taken by the market and/or the authorities “if its domination became too hegemonistic”.  

MSC has reportedly placed fresh newbuilding orders for ‘up to six’ LNG-powered container ships of 22,000 teu, according to this week’s Alphaliner. 

Chinese sources have claimed the shipping giant placed the orders at CMHI Haimen Shipyard in China’s Jiangsu Province and is reportedly paying some $200m per ship and up to $1.2bn for the series.  

MSC’s current ‘container ship shopping cart’ stands at 125, with a total capacity of 2.04m teu. These are made up entirely of dual-fuel, LNG/VLFSO-powered vessels, bar “a few opportunistic resale deals”, wrote Alphaliner.  

The six reported orders at CMHI would add some 132,000 teu to its orderbook – already the world’s largest ahead of CMA CGM at 1.5m teu and COSCO’s 1m teu. 

However, the orders have not been confirmed, and tentative delivery dates have not yet been disclosed. 

In Upply’s Container Shipping Forecast for H2 2025, it highlighted that MSC “has succeeded in establishing itself as the market reference and trendsetter”.  

“It sets the tone and the other carriers follow,” said the freight data company. 

And while Upply noted that MSC has not yet opted to start a price war and take prices down to a level below its competitors’ break-even levels, it forecast that this could change in the second half of the year. 

“Particularly if we find ourselves with a ‘hungry wolf’ scenario, with fewer containers available for loading in Asia as a result of the trade war and general economic and geopolitical conditions, a fall in freight rates looks plausible in the second half.” 

But the likelihood and scale of this will depend on the situation in the Middle East, added Jérôme De Ricqlès, ocean shipping expert at Upply. “If the situation returns to normal quickly, so that there is a wide-ranging return of shipping to the Suez Canal, freight rates could collapse,” he explained.  

“The shipping companies have already saved their 2025 financial year and results will be higher than forecast, but caution will certainly be the watchword during the preparations for the 2026 budgets.”  

Mr De Ricqlès said that there is “no doubt MSC will be kept under surveillance by both its competitors and the regulatory authorities”, as he predicted its market leader position would begin to “excite envy on the part of its fellows and even attract predators from the public and private sectors”. 

After a 2009 exemption from European Union competition regulations came to an end in April 2024, the shipping companies are now subject to standard competition rules. “On some major trade corridors, some will certainly find it hard to limit their market shares to 20%, with MSC not the only operator concerned in this respect,” according to Mr De Ricqlès. 

“Transparency and accurate data collection will be of capital importance here,”  he advised.  

He also pointed to the recent news of US investment group Black Rock and MSC subsidiary Terminal Investment Limited (TiL) looking to take over all Hutchison Port’s non-Chinese terminals after President Trump attacked what he claimed was China’s control over the Panama canal via the Balboa and Cristobal terminals held at each end of it by Hong Kong’s Hutchison Port group. 

The Chinese government opposed the deal and said that its regulator would need to give its verdict. 

“The current trade war makes it very difficult for major players like MSC to remain completely neutral at political level, while at the same time maintaining good local relations on all the continents of the planet. 

“At a time when the rivalry between China and the United States is being pursued with renewed vigour, taking sides too openly with one side or the other could result in an unwanted blowback,” said Mr De Ricqlès. 

“MSC has a clearly established dominant position but it seems clear that action could be taken by the market and/or the authorities, if its domination became too hegemonistic,” he concluded.