What is the largest container ship in the world?

The largest container ship in the world is the MSC Irina class, which is actually a fleet of six ships built in 2023. These ships measure 399.9m long, 61.3m wide, and are capable of holding 24,346 20ft shipping containers (twenty-foot equivalent units or TEUs).

Container ships form the foundation of global trade. The larger they are, the greater the economies of scale, and, at least in theory, the cheaper goods are to transport.

But we may be reaching a limit for container ship size, at least for now. The MSC Irina class is not that much bigger than the 10th biggest container ship, or even the 20th, all of which have been built in the last decade.

In this article we’ll reveal the largest container ships in the world today, exactly how big they are in real and understandable terms, and why they currently can’t be made much bigger.

The 10 biggest container ships in the world

Fast facts: MSC Irina, the world’s largest container ship

A fully loaded MSC Irina Class ship has a capacity of 24,346 TEU. But what does that mean? In more tangible terms:

• If you placed 24,346 containers end-to-end, they would stretch 147.5km – approximately the distance from Sydney to Newcastle or Brisbane to Noosa.
• They hold the volume of 322 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or 7163 London double decker buses.
• If fully loaded, they’d hold 525,874 tonnes of cargo, the same as 52 Eiffel Towers or the steel from ten Sydney Harbour Bridges.

Key technologies in ultra-large container ships

Pushing the limits of size means pushing the limits of innovation. Here’s a sample of the advanced technology behind the world’s largest container ships.

Why are the world’s largest container ships all the same size?

You’ll notice that the world’s largest container ships are all the same size: ~400m long, ~61.5m wide. There are a few reasons why:

• Suez Canal 400m length limit: Any longer and a ship is not allowed to transit one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
• Width/beam limits: Ships wider than 61.5m wouldn’t be serviceable at most major terminals due to limits in berth sizes, cranes, harbour channels and turning basins.
• Draft limits: Many ports and canals restrict how deep ships can sit in the water, which places restrictions on size, design and payload.
• Risk management: Ultra-large ships concentrate enormous cargo; if one is delayed, global supply chains can stall, so going bigger may not make shipping better.

Ultimately, moving beyond current container ship size limits would require extensive and expensive global port upgrades, for minimal gains in efficiency.

In the last decade shipping companies have instead focused on optimising their ships to carry as much cargo as possible within the limits.