The story
Founded by Gianluigi Aponte in 1970, in Naples.1
Mediterranean Shipping Company was founded in Naples in 1970 as a private company by seafaring captain Gianluigi Aponte and Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, when they bought their first ship, Patricia, followed by Rafaela, with which Aponte began a shipping line operating between the Mediterranean and Somalia. The line subsequently expanded through the purchase of second-hand cargo ships. By 1977, the company operated services to northern Europe, Africa and the Indian Ocean.
In 1978, the headquarters was established in Geneva, Switzerland. The expansion continued through the 1980s; by the end of the decade, MSC operated ships to North America and Australia.
In 1988, MSC entered the cruise business by buying the liner Monterey. In 1989, they purchased Lauro Lines. The new company was named StarLauro Cruises and had 2 ships, Monterey and Achille Lauro. In 1994, the company ordered its first newly constructed container ships, which were delivered beginning in 1996 with MSC Alexa. They were built by Italian shipbuilder, Fincantieri. In 1995, StarLauro Cruises was renamed MSC Cruises.
In October 2014, Diego Aponte (son of MSC founder Gianluigi Aponte) was named president and chief executive of MSC, taking over from his father who was named group executive chairman. Gianluigi Aponte would continue to oversee all group related activities as well as supporting Diego in shaping the future of MSC. In December 2014, the MSC shipping line were ranked number 6 in Lloyd's List of Top 100 Most Influential People in Shipping.
In January 2015, MSC launched the world largest container ship, MSC Oscar, with a capacity of 19,224 TEU. Built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and registered in Panama, it joined the Albatross service in January as part of the 2M VSA (Vessel Sharing Agreement between Maersk Line and MSC). In June 2015 Maersk and MSC signed a vessel-sharing agreement on the Asia-Europe, trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trades. The agreement is referred to as the 2M Alliance. The 2M Alliance includes 185 vessels with an estimated capacity of 2.1 million TEU, deployed on 21 strings.
In February 2017, MSC purchased a 49% stake into Messina Line, an Italian shipping Line founded in Genoa, Italy in 1929, specialised in intra Mediterranean short sea, and Europe to East and West Africa routes. The company owns 8 Roll-on/roll-off vessels and a Terminal in Genoa port, on top of a container fleet of 65,000 TEU.
In October 2018, MSC decided to charter out the only two car carriers in its fleet (MSC Immacolata and MSC Cristiana) to Grimaldi Group, replacing them on the service towards West Africa with two Messina Line – ConRO vessels: MSC Cobalto (formerly Jolly Cobalto) and MSC Titanio (formerly Jolly Titanio).
The swap of these ships, that were previously deployed on MSC Adriatic Trade in between the ports of Trieste and İzmir, results in view of a tighter collaboration between MSC and Messina Line.
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In July 2019, MSC launched the largest container ship in the world at the time, the 23,756 TEU MSC Gülsün, built by Samsung Heavy Industries.
In December 2020, Søren Toft became MSC Chief Executive Officer. Søren Toft is the first person outside the Aponte family to become CEO. He would report directly to Diego Aponte, MSC Group President, and Gianluigi Aponte, founder and MSC Group Chairman. Søren Toft also became a member of the board of directors of Terminal Investment Ltd.
In January 2021, MSC was awarded the "Maritime Sustainability Passport" (MSP) Certificate and Seal by the North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA). NAMEPA's co-founder/executive director Carleen Lyden Walker stated that "By qualifying for NAMEPA's Maritime Sustainability Passport, MSC has demonstrated its commitment to stewardship of the environment, care for its employees, and responsible corporate governance".
In April 2021, MSC launched a special shipping service to help the distribution of pharmaceutical products during the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2021, Gary Keville Transport Limited obtained temporary High Court order lifting an embargo preventing it from collecting and delivering containers from Dublin port. In December 2021, MSC was reported to offer at least 5.7 billion euros for Bolloré Africa Logistics, a subsidiary of the Bolloré Logistics. Later in December 2022, it was announced MSC had completed the acquisition of Bolloré Africa Logistics.
In December 2021, MSC acquired a 67% stake in the Brazilian domestic carrier Log-In Logistica.
On 6 January 2022, MSC became the largest container shipping company in the world, surpassing Maersk, in terms of TEU capacity, according to the latest Alphaliner's figures.
In 2022, MSC launched a cargo airline, MSC Air Cargo.
In March 2023, the company broke the record of biggest container ship in the world two times in a row by receiving the 24,116 TEU MSC Tessa mega container ship on 10 March and the 24,345 TEU MSC Irina mega container ship on 13 March.
In October 2023, MSC acquired a 50% stake in Italian passenger rail group NTV.
In March 2024, it was announced the MSC subsidiary Shipping Agencies Services (SAS) had reached agreement to acquire a 42% stake in the Lyon headquartered air and sea transport engineering and overseas forwarding and logistics company, Clasquin Group. That same month MSC acquired the Il Secolo XIX newspaper group.
In June 2024, MSC took a 15% stake in Genoa airport.
In July 2024, MSC complete its $698 million acquisition of Norway’s Gram Car Carriers.
In September 2024, subsidiary company Medlog acquired UK based haulier, Maritime Transport.
In October 2024, MSC acquired 56.47% of the Brazilian port and maritime logistics operator Wilson Sons.
In November 2024, MSC acquired 49.9% of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG, the Hamburg port main terminal operator.
In early 2025, as part of a strategic alliance, MSC agreed to acquire a 49% stake in Spanish towage company Bolude Towage through the contribution of its subsidiary MedTug.
Also in 2025, MSC launched iReefer, a digital container monitoring platform, to provide customers with live data on temperature, humidity, and other conditions for refrigerated cargo. MSC stated that the platform was intended to support efficiency and "traceability" in the transport of perishable goods.
In April 2026, it was announced that the Aponte family had completed a transfer of ownership of the company from founder Gianluigi Aponte to his two children, Diego Aponte and Alexa Aponte Vago. Similar to their parents, the heirs are Italian nationals and Swiss residents, and hold leadership roles with Diego, who serves as Group President, and Alexa, who serves as Group Chief Financial Officer. Gianluigi Aponte will remain as Executive Chairman.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mediterranean Shipping Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5