Order boxes

While parts of the German economy will probably have to undergo an even stricter lockdown, imports and exports are booming. Container transport on the route from South East Asia to Europe is in particularly high demand. As a result, the ships deployed here are almost fully booked and freight rates for containers have multiplied in some cases. Another problem is that containers are currently not available in sufficient numbers in Asia, which is also due to the fact that significantly fewer goods are exported from Europe than producers ship in the opposite direction. The boxes are therefore sometimes returned with a long delay and are then available in the wrong place.
Hapag-Lloyd has now taken action and ordered 150,000 standard and refrigerated containers in China. The first new boxes were handed over to the shipping company in the first quarter of this year and integrated into the existing container fleet. In addition to the standard boxes, 8,000 special containers were also ordered, which are required for the transport of oversized or hazardous goods. The total investment volume amounts to around 550 million dollars. This makes it one of the largest container orders in the history of the shipping company.
"The container shipping industry is currently experiencing unprecedented demand, which has led to a shortage of containers around the world. With the latest container orders, Hapag-Lloyd is helping to alleviate the current situation and will be able to offer its customers a significantly better service," says Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd.
With a fleet of 237 container ships and a total transport capacity of 1.7 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world's leading liner shipping companies.

Text: mb; Photo: Hapag-Lloyd