ALPHALINER is reporting that Mediterranean Shipping Co's (MSC) world-beating orderbook has grown by another near 200,000 slots, according to Singapore's Splash 247.

MSC has chosen Jiangsu New Times Shipbuilding in China for the next phase of its extraordinary expansion that will ensure it becomes the first liner in history to control a fleet in excess of 5 million slots shortly.

The Chinese yard has been contracted to build twenty ships for the Geneva-based carrier, an order made up of ten 8,100 TEU vessels, and ten 11,400 TEU vessels. All ships will be delivered in 2024 and 2025 and will feature LNG dual-fuel propulsion. No price has been revealed for this latest series of ship orders.

MSC already has fourteen 7,000 TEU ships on order at the same yard. According to Alphaliner data, MSC has 111 vessels made up of 1.45 million slots on order, roughly the same deployed capacity as the current size of Japan's Ocean Network Express (ONE), the world's seventh largest carrier.