MSC Irina has been the largest container ship in the world since March 2023. Three and a half years on, nothing has overtaken her.
At 24,346 TEU, she leads a club that now takes in seven of the ten largest container lines, each running ships between 23,664 and 24,346 TEU. The ships have grown as large as berths, cranes and canals allow. What sets the newest ones apart is no longer their size. It is what they burn.
The ten largest, line by line
Each carrier's single largest ship, ranked by nominal capacity. This is a ranking of ships, not of fleet size.
MSC Irina leads a class of six ships at the same rating. Four of the ten are registered in Liberia or Panama rather than in their carrier's home country.
The newest arrivals
CMA CGM Notre Dame. Delivered in May 2026, she is the largest LNG powered container ship in the world and the largest ship under the French flag. At 24,212 TEU she sits just 134 TEU behind MSC Irina. She is the first of a series of ten.
YM Willpower. Yang Ming's new flagship arrived in February 2026, the first of five 15,500 TEU ships built by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. She runs on LNG dual fuel engines and takes over from the line's 14,000 TEU W class as its largest ship.
Wan Hai A01. Wan Hai's largest ship entered service in March 2023 as the first of five 13,200 TEU vessels from Hyundai Heavy Industries. The line has 16,000 TEU ships on order for delivery from 2027.
Why it matters for decarbonisation
The size race has stalled. The record has not moved since 2023. A ship of 400 metres and 24,000 TEU is close to what the world's main hub ports can handle, so carriers now spend their capital elsewhere.
The fuel race has started. The newest giants are defined by their engines. CMA CGM Notre Dame burns LNG. Hapag-Lloyd's 23,664 TEU class runs on LNG dual fuel engines built to switch later to bio methane and e methane. Yang Ming's new 15,500 TEU ships are LNG dual fuel too.
At berth, the question is electricity. From 1 January 2030, FuelEU Maritime requires container ships above 5,000 GT that stay at a qualifying TEN-T port for more than two hours to take all their power from shore. Under AFIR, those ports must have onshore power ready by 31 December 2029 for at least 90% of container and passenger ship calls. A 400 metre ship drawing several megawatts alongside is the hardest case to plan for. Every port that expects these giants needs grid capacity sized for them now.
The ships have stopped growing. The ports that serve them are only starting to plug in.
