No sea, but lots of ships Switzerland is now the largest container ship nation in the world
Switzerland is famously a country without a sea. And yet it has recently become the world's largest container ship nation. This is due to a single company.
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- Switzerland has become the world's largest container ship nation, displacing Germany from the top spot.
- The reason for this is the world's largest shipping company, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), based in Geneva.
- China is now in second place in the rankings, followed by Germany.
As is well known, the Swiss do not have their own access to the sea - and so their latest leap to the top of a world ranking list seems surprising at first glance: Switzerland has risen to become the largest container ship nation in the world, displacing the previous leader Germany.
The previous fleet leader has even landed in third place behind China, as the President of the Association of German Shipowners (VDR), Gaby Bornheim, said in Hamburg.
The fact that Switzerland 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 overtakes Germany and 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 mainly due to intra-Asian traffic, which China serves with many small container ships.
