Traditional Male Dominance Threatened
The maritime sector has traditionally been male dominated yet things appear to be changing.Women mariners are slowly entering the profession at different levels ranging from hospitality at cruise and ferry vessels ,container terminals, stevedoring, engineering, nautical and outright ownership of lines.
Control of a Fifth of World Freight
Credit ;MSC
Captain Gianluigi Aponte , born in Italy is the owner of Mediterranean Shipping Company SA (MSC) and a graduate of the famed Italian Maritime Academy. His career commenced as a captain operating passenger ferries in the Mediterranean , a family business. Captain Gianluigi Aponte entered the banking sector which seems to have inspired him to launch the Mediterranean Shipping Company. The Aponte business worth is presently estimated to be in the range of $ 20 billion.
Fairy Tale Romance Enters Shipping
Captain Gianluigi Aponte first met his wife Rafaela on a cruise at the Italian island of Capri in the 1960s when he was a fledgling ship captain. Rafaela Aponte- Diamant is the richest self-made woman according to Forbes’ latest list of billionaires . Captain Aponte and Rafaela each own a 50% stake in MSC, the world’s largest shipping line and their foray into the shipping industry started in the year 1970 when they acquired a ship after obtaining a loan of $200,000.
Credit ;Forbes
MSC Diversifies
The shipping company , headquartered in Geneva,Switzerland ,has diversified and currently MSC operates holiday cruises (MSC Cruises) for which purpose it acquired a private island in the Bahamas , inland logistics (Medlog) and port operations (Terminal Investment Limited.). Buoyed by revenues accrued in the post pandemic period MSC diversified its shipping interest and acquired shares in a South African hospital operator. Operating through its subsidiary MSC has penetrated the business of railway lines and rail networks in Africa and most recently in Italy. Of course ports make up an integral component of the MSC portfolio boasting ownership of 70 harbours . To the chagrin of the German trade unions MSC is making inroads by heavy investment in the Hamburg port operator HHLA and directly threatening the dominance of Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd shipping line. The Mediterranean Shipping Company SA and the City of Hamburg have a stake of 86% of HHLA and acquisition is pending approval of the relevant German authorities
Corporate Structure of MSC
Credit;Lloyd’s List
Captain Gianluigi Aponte is MSC’s executive chairman, Rafaela manages decorating ships for MSC Cruises , Alexa Aponte Vago and son-in-law Pierfrancesco Vago supervise operations and Diego the son is the MSC’s president. Billionaire Gianluigi Aponte now controls one-fifth of global container ship fleet. Former AP Moller-Maersk CEO Soren Toft is the Chief Executive for container shipping and logistics.
South Korea’s Contributes to MSC Global Operations
Presently MSC is the largest shipping company in the world boasting 793 container ships with an additional 123 boxships ordered. Annually the company transports almost 22 million containers with its workforce of 180,000.
Credit ;Lloyd’s List
Its flagship container vessel MSC Gülsün was built by Samsung Heavy Industries in the year 2019 and has a capacity of 23,756 containers in rows of 24 across making it the largest container ship at that time.The shipping company stresses that such large container vessels will enable it to comply with its environmental commitments and lower carbon emission (per TEU).
Credit;Seareporter.it
Revenues
The company does not disclose its revenues and is run as a family concern. Estimates abound of MSC revenues and its annual turnover is estimated at almost Euros 85 billion while raking profit of Euros 36 billion at the peak of the pandemic which witnessed global supply chain bottlenecks which in turn led to spikes in freight prices.
Authored by Nadir Mumtaz
Credit/Source :
https://lloydslist.com/LL1129542/16-Aponte-family-Mediterranean-Shipping-Co
https://www.forbes.com/profile/gianluigi-aponte/
https://www.msc.com/en/about-us/management/captain-gianluigi-aponte
https://lloydslist.com/LL1128824/Worlds-largest-boxship-completes-first-Asia-Europe-leg
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