Who invented it? A country without a sea is the largest container ship nation in the world
Until now, Germany was the world's largest container ship nation. But that is now over. The title is now held by a country that doesn't even have access to the sea.
11.03.2025, 13:37
dpa
Switzerland - a country without its own access to the sea - has become the world's largest container ship nation. The previous global fleet leader, Germany, has even fallen back to third place, as the President of the Association of German Shipowners (VDR), Gaby Bornheim, said in Hamburg. China follows Switzerland in second place.
The fact that the Alpine country is now the leader in container shipping is due to a single company: the world's largest shipping company, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), based in Geneva.
In the past, it has not only made a name for itself by acquiring a stake in the Hamburg port logistics company HHLA, but most recently also as a buyer of German container ships. "They have taken over a lot of tonnage," said Bornheim.
Switzerland beats China
The result: although the gross tonnage (GT) of container ships under German control has risen from 29 million to 30.2 million GT, Switzerland is now ahead with 34.7 million GT and China with 31 million GT. The GT is the measure of the total size of a ship.
According to VDR Managing Director Martin Kröger, the fact that China has also overtaken Germany is primarily due to intra-Asian traffic, which China serves with many small container ships.
The German merchant fleet has a total of 1,764 ships - 36 fewer than in the previous year. "But the gross tonnage has risen from 47 million GT to 47.4 million GT." This still puts Germany in seventh place among the world's largest merchant fleets - behind Greece, China and Japan.
