MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company has extended its unrelenting raid on the secondhand container ship market.

The world’s largest liner operator company has acquired five more veteran vessels, including another brace of post-6,000-teu ships from Germany’s NSB Group.

The liner giant is buying the 6,892-teu Buxcoast and Buxcliff (both built 2001) in an en-bloc purchase for $45m, said brokers.