MSC Rita V - back again

 

When the MSC Rita V arrived in Halifax in April, Shipfax gave the ship full coverage, leaving little to add this time around. See April 24, 2025.

For today's arrival (November 14) the ship is still wearing the blue hull paint of its former owners, Maersk Line, and the ship is no less impressive than it was then, even with the shabby paint. (Which always looks good in low angle sun).

 No longer operating at its design speed of 25 knots, but with its huge engine located amidships it has a racy look to it. According to AIS it was doing 19.9 knots at times during its five day passage from Sines, Portugal on MSC's Med Canadian service. It is due to sail for Montreal after reducing its draft by offloading some cargo here.

 Meanwhile the ship's owners, MSC, continue to grow, its ships now now exceeding 7 million TEU total capacity. The phenomenal growth from its 2022 capacity of 4.3 million TEU, is largely as a result of its buying spree of 400 second hand ships in the last five years. The company is now more than fifty per cent larger than its rival Maersk.

Not only does MSC scoop up older ships, but it also has an estimated 2.2 million TEU capacity of new ships on order. Its current fleet represents 4.2 million TEU of owned vessels - the remainder are on charter from third parties.

Shipping observers predict an over supply of ships in the near future and a general culling of older ships by scrapping, particularly if things calm down in the Red Sea and the shorter Suez route from Asia becomes safer. In order to maintain weekly schedules, most shipping lines have added ships to make up for the longer routing. As MSC accepts new ships in the next year or so, and other lines such as CMA CGM with 1.75million TEU on order do likewise we may see the last of these impressive "oldies".

There may be a silver lining however. Some lines that redirected large container ships from the Suez route found that the big ships had extra capacity which made import and export rates from west African countries more attractive. The economies of several of those countries are booming and some shipping lines may keep sailing "via the Cape" to keep the added business. If so then a large reduction in tonnage may not occur right away.

Since it can take a year or two or three to deliver new ships, ships ordered due to the Red Sea situation may not be arriving for a while yet. It must be remembered that many of the VLCCs that were ordered when the Suez Canal was closed from 1967 to 1975, after the Six Day War,  were rendered obsolete soon after delivery, Many were scrapped well before their "Best Before Dates." That is unlikely to occur this time as the new ships will have desirable new features, but it could spell the end or many of the smaller sized "oldies".

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