MSC bought BAL Container Line's two 14,000 teu vessels built at Jiangnan Shipyard. The Swiss-Italian mainline operator continues to combine its record market leadership (by capacity) position.

Shanghai-based BAL, which runs a Southeast Asia-Japan service, ordered the ships when it ventured into long-haul lanes during the pandemic-induced boom in 2022.

However, in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing on Wednesday, BAL's intermediate holding company, LC Logistics, said that the group had decided to realise a profit from selling the new buildings, set to be delivered between July and September next year.

The filing says MSC's special purpose vehicles, Laudine Oceanway and Aludra Oceanway, will acquire the two vessels, one each.

BAL paid $84.3m toward the cost of the vessels, but MSC paid $133.3m, bringing BAL a $49m profit. This excludes another $3.3m. MSC will pay BAL for the equipment on the vessels and the outstanding sum of $196.7m due to Jiangnan Shipyard for the vessel construction.

As BAL becomes more familiar with the ships' construction status, it will continue supervising and following up on MSC's vessel-building process.

BAL, however, might still be in the market for large ships: The company has reportedly signed a letter of intent with Jiangnan Shipyard for four more 14,000 teu ships. It has recently returned to the long-haul trades with its reactivated China-Mexico service.