‘MSC Irina’ took off on its very first voyage from China towards Europe to join her MSC sisters. The 24,346 TEU ‘MSC Irina’ has broken all capacity records so far, exceeding the recently launched newbuild ‘OOCL Spain’ whose capacity is 24,188 TEU.

This news comes only a week after talks of MSC receiving a ship titled ‘MSC Tessa’, another ultra-large container vessel with a capacity surpassing that of ‘Ever Alot’. Swiss-based MSC continues to break records starting from becoming the leading box carrier in the world last year and having the largest orderbook to the owner of the largest container ship.

‘MSC Irina’ is only 230 TEU older than her sister ‘MSC Tessa,’ which capacity is 24,116 TEU. Both, however, are 399.99 meters in length and a little over 61 meters in beam. In addition, they both were built by Chinese shipyard Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, which won the China Industrial Award last year.

Quiet an extensive number of newbuilds is expected to join the global fleet this year and the next. In the meantime, analysts have warned that this could lead to overcapacity in the market as shipping demands decrease nearing pre-pandemic levels.