MSC CEO Soren Toft gave an overview of the company's ongoing development, economic recovery expectations, and attempts to achieve sustainable shipping, speaking at this year's Transpacific Maritime Conference, known as TPM23.
"The world has seen through the supply chain crunch just how important the logistics and shipping industry really is – we keep global trade moving," he said in an interview with the Journal of Commerce’s Peter Tirschwell.
Soren Toft highlighted that "container shipping will serve as the bedrock for the growth of international trade and commerce, and 'global trade will prevail' despite the disruptions of Covid and geopolitical factors."
MSC has spent heavily on fleet renewal in recent years and will continue to spend billions of dollars to guarantee it can continue to be a long-term partner for customers, according to Soren Toft.
Furthermore, MSC chooses to run its own ships as a "first and foremost" transport business and will likely see the percentage of leased cargo in its fleet decrease in the coming months, as well as send some ageing ships to be repurposed.
MSC has also heavily invested in cutting-edge technologies and digital applications to improve the energy economy. The company has also been a pioneer in the use of ethically sourced blended biofuels, and it will shortly begin using liquefied natural gas (LNG) as part of its shift to net decarbonization by 2050.
The Swiss/Italian shipping firm is planning a multi-pronged strategy, including the deployment of several kinds of net-zero energy sources, such as synthetic LNG, green methanol, and ammonia, to power its fleet of the future when these fuels become accessible at scale.
"Whatever the solution, a net zero future will add costs to the supply chain and these costs will ultimately be passed on to the consumer," pointed out MSC CEO.
“Decarbonisation is something that we must solve," noted Toft. “This is not something that we maybe should fix, this is something that we absolutely must fix, and I’m sure we will.”
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