A total of 285,000 TEU of boxship capacity joined the global fleet last month, shipping intelligence service Alphaliner said in a note to clients on Tuesday, the biggest monthly growth on record, according to Ship & Bunker.
MSC took on 114,474 TEU of the new capacity.
"Initially, forecast deliveries for June were even in the 400,000 TEU range, but labour shortages at Far Eastern yards and a slow cargo market have seen a fair number of vessel handovers slip into Q3," Alphaliner said.
"No fewer than five megamax ships joined the global fleet in June: two units for MSC, and one each for ONE, OOCL and Hapag-Lloyd.
"On top of these, shipyards delivered nine neo-panamax vessels.
"MSC alone received five of these, while Maersk, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd and ZIM each got one.
"Over the course of this year and the next, newbuilding deliveries are expected to remain high, fuelled by an orderbook of 7.60 MTEU- or 28.5% of the existing liner fleet."
Alphaliner lists current total global boxship capacity at 27.3 million TEU.