Ships above 8,000 TEU working Mediterranean trades have risen to 16 from nine a year earlier, marking a 78 percent increase. This growth is attributed to MSC's intra-Europe expansion and Gemini's deep-sea cascade converging on the region, as reported by UK's Container Management.

According to Alphaliner, the average vessel size in the Mediterranean remains at 1,870 TEU. This indicates that larger tonnage is concentrating on specific corridors rather than being evenly distributed across the trade. Notably, fourteen of the 16 ships are deployed on North Europe-Mediterranean services, where longer voyages make scale economics viable.

MSC is the primary driver of this trend, operating nine of the 16 ships, an increase from six of nine a year ago. Recent additions to their fleet include the 9,411 TEU MSC Giselle, the 9,408 TEU MSC Elma, the 9,403 TEU sister ships MSC Lagos X and MSC Nairobi X, and the 9,288 TEU MSC Brittany.

This build-out is part of MSC's standalone intra-Europe strategy, which has elevated its share of cellular capacity on the North Europe-Mediterranean trade to 45.5 percent. The rise in larger ships reflects carriers cascading tonnage into selected trades where operational and financial value can be justified.