MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company is a giant with an English acronym and a Made in Italy core. It was founded by shipowner Gianluigi Aponte, who was born in 1940 in Sant’Agnello (NA).
As soon as he came of age, he inherited the shares in the Neapolitan company ‘Navigazione Libera del Golfo’ from his father and began working on the ferries connecting Naples and Capri.
During this period, he met his future wife Rafaela Diamant Pinas, the daughter of a banker from Geneva, where Aponte had studied economics at university. And it was precisely in Geneva and Brussels that the MSC company would be based. Founded in 1970 with the purchase of a second-hand cargo ship named ‘MV Patricia’, a small 7,000-tonne cargo ship, it began trading initially with Africa and then on increasingly competitive routes with stopovers in Durban, Dar Es Salaam, Mombasa, Mogadishu, Jeddah, Aqaba and Port Sudan.
As Gianluigi Aponte himself has told on more than one occasion, MSC in the early years followed a very precise business model to grow steadily: buy used ships cheaply, refurbish them in Italian shipyards, and use them on new routes, which were then also followed by competitors.
The first cargo ships
At the beginning of the 1980s, the fleet counted the first container ships, a far-sighted intuition given that this type of transport was destined to take the lion’s share of consumer goods logistics. Today, MSC is the world’s leading container shipping company: it has 725 container ships, 442 of which it owns, with a cargo capacity corresponding to 18% of the whole shipping market.
Driven by the belief that truly integrated logistics should be the prerogative of shipowners, Gianluigi Aponte has acquired several companies to perfect the cargo handling process in its entirety. Just to name a few, in 2017, he acquired 50% of Ignazio Messina & C, in 2019, he founded the rail cargo services company Medway, and in 2022, he acquired the company Rimorchiatori Mediterranei. In addition, the company is also active in air cargo transport through MSC air cargo.
Passenger transport and cruises
However, cargo transport is not MSC’s only business. In fact, MSC Cruises was founded in 1988, following the acquisition of the Lauro fleet. Grandiosa, Bellissima, Poesia, Armonia, Divina, and Sinfonia are some of the names of MSC’s cruise ships. Today, MSC Cruises is the third-largest cruise company in the world and the fastest-growing brand in its market.
Focus on sustainability
Finally, the company has implemented several practices to foster sustainability. Did you know a cruise ship produces about 20 cubic metres of waste daily? Regarding MSC, about 90% of this waste is separated by hand, with four to five people covering 24-hour shifts. Among the good practices adopted is the use of shore power, i.e., a direct connection to the quay when the ship is in port. MSC was the first to make a zero-direct-emission stop using this connection in the port of Malta. MSC’s other divisions also focus on sustainability through building low-energy ships and using biofuels or liquefied natural gas. The goal is to become a carbon-free company by 2050.
A curiosity: for the past sixteen years, Gianluigi Aponte has wanted Sofia Loren to be the godmother of honour for the launch of every new cruise ship; to date, Sofia Loren has taken part in nineteen different ones as godmother, the last being that of Euribia in June 2023, MSC Cruises’ twenty-second ship.
Congratulations to those who put their heart, values, and talent into it and bring Italy to the world’s (maritime and air) routes!
Learn about other Made in Italy companies that deal with boating and mobility.