According to Alphaliner, MSC is redeploying almost all of its ultra-large container ships, shifting them from the Asia-to-Nor Europe route to the Asia-to-Mediterranean and Asia-to-West Africa routes to benefit from the rising spot freight rates. Alphaliner said this is a development for the Asia-Africa route, as the largest ships currently deployed on the route are only 16,600 TEU. Before the alliance reshuffle, MSC's largest container ships were deployed on the 2M alliance's Lion/AE6 route, and now MSC operates Lion route independently, deploying 17 new Panamax ships (13,000TEU-16,616TEU). MSC's three Asia-to-North Europe routes have also reduced the size of the deployed ships Some of the 24,000TEU-class vessels under MSC will be deployed to the Asia-to-West Africa express route, while of the other ultra-large vessels (19,200TEU-24,300TEU) will be deployed to the Asia-to-Merranean route. Recently, the 23,782TEU MSC Diletta will gradually join the Africa express route, followed by the 2,346TEU MSC Turkiye and the 24,116TEU MSC Tessa. According to Port Circle (ID: gangkou), the ports of call in the African region for MSC's Africa express route include Tema Port, Lome Port, Abidjan Port, and Pointe No Port, all of which are joint ventures between MSC and Maersk.Alphaliner explained that as MSC is no longer a member of the container shipping alliance, it is able to respond quickly to changes in supply demand and rates, though this also means that the capacity shift in MSC's shipping network is not necessarily permanent. Depending on the changes in freight rates, Mediterranean Shipping can reallocate its ultra-large container ships to other routes, such as Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and even the trans-Pacific route.
