Landlocked Switzerland becomes world’s largest container ship nation
Switzerland now the largest container shipping nation in the world
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Landlocked Switzerland becomes world’s largest container ship nation
Germany used to be the world’s largest container shipping nation. But that is now a thing of the past. The title is now held by a country that doesn’t even have access to the sea.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Schweiz jetzt grösste Containerschiff-Nation der Welt
Original
Switzerland – a country without its own sea access – has risen to become the largest container ship nation in the world. 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 on a lot of tonnage,” said Bornheim.
More
More
MSC: The secretive Geneva shipping family with the global empire
This content was published on
They control 20% of global container transport on the high seas and are the fifth-richest Swiss family: the very secretive Aponte family.
The result: although the gross tonnage (GT) of container ships sailing 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 transport, which China serves with many small container ships.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Swiss Abroad
Ups and downs: Swiss drivers benefit from world’s only mobile bridge
What factors should be taken into account when inheriting Swiss citizenship abroad?
Should there be a limit to the passing on of Swiss citizenship? Or is the current practice too strict and it should still be possible to register after the age of 25?
Vaud government removes Valérie Dittli from finance minister role
This content was published on
The Vaud government announced on Friday that it had removed Valérie Dittli from her role as finance minister in the western Swiss region.
Swiss attorney general takes over suspected RUAG MRO fraud probe
This content was published on
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has taken over the criminal investigation into the case of alleged fraud at RUAG MRO, a Swiss military technology firm.
Glaciers over 3,000m can be preserved via better climate protection
This content was published on
Stronger global climate protection could preserve more than a quarter of the ice in the Swiss Alps, says the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences (SCNAT).
Swiss UN rapporteur urges Washington to release Columbia University student
This content was published on
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Nicolas Levrat, and eight other legal experts, have called on the US to release Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil.
This content was published on
Nestlé plans to close its factory in Germany at Neuss, near Düsseldorf, by mid-2026. The Swiss food giant also plans to sell its Conow plant, near the Polish border, early next year.
UBS mulls moving HQ abroad, according to media report
This content was published on
The Swiss bank UBS could relocate its Swiss headquarters abroad if capital demand is not reduced, Bloomberg News reports.
SWISS cancels flights to London’s Heathrow Airport after power station fire
This content was published on
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) says it has cancelled all flights from Geneva and Zurich to Heathrow Airport on Friday following a huge fire at a power sub-station.
Swiss government to deport rejected asylum seekers from Afghanistan
This content was published on
The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) is changing its asylum policy for Afghanistan. Single men with rejected applications can now be deported.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.