MSC to keep same capacity with scrappings matching deliveries

GENEVA's Mediterranean Shipping Company will scrap older vessels and return chartered ships to keep capacity down as newbuildings arrive, totalling 170,000 TEU, during the downturn in shipping demand, MSC chairman Gianluigi Aponte told London's Financial Times.

"The capacity will remain the same, but we will have fewer ships," said Mr Aponte. "We will give back vessels we have on time charter, and we will be scrapping about the same amount of container capacity" as the company absorbs, he said.

Shipping industry consultancy AXS-Alphaliner said MSC orders until 2011 will add 11 per cent capacity, but Newark's Journal of Commerce notes MSC has already scrapped 20 vessels and reports that Aponte said new cutbacks, plus deliveries of larger, more efficient vessels would cap capacity.

(Source: wwww.schednet.com)