Neutral, but powerful

Switzerland becomes the largest container ship nation

The country does not even have its own access to the sea and yet is the largest container ship nation in the world - we are talking about Switzerland. It has even managed to move ahead of China and Germany, as the world's largest shipping company is based in the neutral neighboring country.

The fact that Switzerland actually ranks first in the world is shown by the gross tonnage (GT) - the measure of the total size of a ship. The GT of ships sailing under Swiss control is 34.7 million GT. China is in second place with 31 million GT and Germany is in third place with 30.2 million GT. Germany was previously in first place.

The world's largest shipping company is based in Switzerland
But why has Switzerland become the largest container ship nation? It's down to a single company: the world's largest shipping company, which is based in the Swiss city of Geneva. It is called Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and is so big because it has joined the port logistics company HHLA in Hamburg and has also recently purchased German container ships, as the President of the Association of German Shipowners (VDR), Gaby Bornheim, knows.

According to VDR Managing Director Martin Kröger, the fact that China has also overtaken Germany is primarily due to the intra-Asian trades that China serves with many small container ships.