News / MSC dominating north-south European regional box trade

MSC Levante 7 Photo: VesselFinder

MSC has tightened its grip on the North Europe-Mediterranean trade, controlling almost half the deployed container capacity on the route, according to new analysis from Alphaliner. 

The Geneva-headquartered carrier now accounts for 45.5% of all cellular capacity operating between North Europe and the Mediterranean, equivalent to 360,517 teu, as of 1 May.  

The figure is more than double MSC’s 21.6% share of the global container fleet, underlining the carrier’s growing regional trade dominance. 

According to recent data from Container Trades Statistics, total intra Europe liftings in Q1 2026 totalled 2,097,754 teu, down lishgtly from Q4 2025, which saw 2,106,775 teu lifted, and roughly level year on year, with Q1 2025 intra Europe volumes totalling 2,092,171 teu.

Alphaliner identified just ten carriers operating regular liner services between North Europe and the Mediterranean, seven of which are major deepsea operators.  

MSC, CMA CGM, Maersk, Cosco, ONE, Zim, and Hapag-Lloyd together control 97.3% of the market’s capacity, leaving only a marginal 2.7% share for regional operators Tailwind, Borchard, and Akkon Lines. 

Source: Alphaliner

MSC itself deploys just over 164,000 teu on the trade, with a third of that on a single service – the North Europe-East Med Levante Express – operated with six vessels in the 8,500-9,420 teu range, the largest being the 9,411 teu MSC Giselle. 

However, the largest vessel on the trade is Maersk’s 9,600 teu Columbine Maersk, recently introduced on the North Europe-Turkey Aegean Sea service. 

Maersk is also preparing to strengthen its position further with the launch of its Baltic Sea service, which will deploy five vessels of 2,800-4,950 teu. Once fully phased in, during June, the Danish carrier’s market share is expected to rise from 14% to 19%, allowing it to overtake CMA CGM in the regional rankings. 

The Loadstar has reported that Maersk had seen “disproportionately high growth” on intra-Europe trades in both capacity and market share following a boost of some 30,000 teu from the ‘hub and spoke’ system implemented last February via its Gemini alliance with Hapag-Lloyd.   

At the time, Maersk had climbed five positions in the league of North Europe’s largest operators in just one year, to second place after MSC.   

Alphaliner data from July showed the Danish carrier had increased its intra-Europe market share to 13.5%, compared with 3.7% the previous year, and was the only mainline operator to increase “both market share and capacity by a notable margin”.