Last week MSC ordered ten 21,850 TEU ships at Hengli Heavy Industry and five 21,750 TEU ships at Zhoushan Changhong International, all for delivery in 2029. Linerlytica, reported by The Loadstar on 19 August, now puts the MSC orderbook at 170 ships and about 3 million TEU.

The comparison is stark. Maersk is building 73 ships, about 900,000 TEU. Alphaliner’s first-half 2026 read put CMA CGM near 1.8 million TEU on order. Wan Hai last week ordered seven 11,000 TEU ships and one 9,200 TEU ship at Shanghai Waigaoqiao, methanol and LNG ready, at about 121 million dollars and 107 million dollars each. Its book is now 45 ships and just over 470,000 TEU, enough to pass Yang Ming’s 21 ships and about 274,000 TEU.

PIL is also ordering hard for a mid-size line. In June it named Kota Elok and Kota Elan, the first two of a 13-ship series of 13,000 TEU LNG dual-fuel vessels at Hudong-Zhonghua. Its FY2025 results said eight further 13,000 TEU orders in 2026 took dual-fuel newbuilds since 2022 to 28. Those ships are aimed first at Asia to South America, but they add to the same north-south pool that feeds West Africa.

Some consultants this week put the industry orderbook close to 42 percent of the fleet in service. Other 2026 counts have been nearer 30 to 38 percent. The basis of the 42 percent figure is not stated. The MSC lead is not in doubt.

Cameroon does not need a 22,000 TEU MSC call at Douala for this to matter. When Asia to Europe shortens, and MSC, Gemini and Cosco are already sending ships through Suez again, mainline tonnage comes free. West Africa has long been where cascaded ships go. A reported jump in Asia to West Africa capacity in 2026 is consistent with that pattern.

The immediate constraint is not steel in 2029. It is berths now. Much Cameroon cargo still tranships over Tema, Abidjan or Lomé. Kuehne+Nagel’s Africa table for 12 to 18 August put Tema’s 7-day average vessel wait at 6.83 days, with a crane outage, restricted berths and limits on out-of-window calls. Abidjan averaged 5.25 days, with delays near 8 days, high yard occupancy and severe road congestion. Conakry averaged 19.0 days. Douala and Kribi were not in that week’s table.

Larger and more numerous ships raise the size of each call at those hubs. If cranes, yard slots and gates do not grow as fast as the orderbook, waiting times lengthen, feeders miss connections, and import volumes into Douala and Kribi can fall even when Cameroon’s own gateways are clearer.

Sources

The Loadstar, 19 August 2026 (Linerlytica). Alphaliner, first half 2026. PIL newsroom, 23 June 2026. PIL FY2025 results, April 2026. Kuehne+Nagel, Port operational updates from around the world, 12 to 18 August 2026.