Not long ago, Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, dismissed the possibility of further newbuildings this year. But it had already happened.
“Maybe this year, maybe not,” he said diplomatically in front of journalists. However, if broker reports are accurate, the Hamburg-based liner shipping company has long since created a fait accompli.
According to industry service Alphaliner and other sources, Hapag-Lloyd has ordered six additional large newbuildings from Hanwha Ocean (formerly DSME), each with a capacity of 16,000 TEU and an LNG option. There are also options for additional vessels. However, official confirmation is still pending.
The No. 5 in global liner shipping, which has just launched the Gemini Cooperation with Maersk, last placed a 4 billion order in China for a total of 24 ships in October last year. These newbuildings have a total capacity of 312,000 TEU and will be financed “green”, with the participation of Frankfurt-based KfW IPEX-Bank, Chinese lessors and the Chinese export agency, among others.
Hapag-Lloyd launches further newbuilding series
Yangzijiang Shipbuilding is building twelve dual-fuel vessels with 17,000 TEU each. Twelve further vessels, each with a capacity of 9,200 TEU, will be built by New Times Shipbuilding.
Twelve Megamax container ships with 24,000 TEU had previously been put into service – these were ordered in two tranches at the end of 2020 and in May 2021, also from Hanwha Ocean (formerly DSME) in Korea. The Hamburg-based company then moved to China and is now returning to South Korea.
Alphaliner puts Hapag-Lloyd’s fleet capacity at a total of 2.35 million TEU on 302 ships, including 130 of its own with just under 1.4 million TEU. This puts Germany’s only liner shipping company in fifth place in the global ranking. The newbuilding program therefore comprises 35 ships with 442,000 TEU, which corresponds to just under 19% of the fleet. A further 96,000 TEU would now be added.
This should help the company to defend its lead over No. 6, former “THE Alliance” partner ONE (1.9 million TEU + 610,00 TEU in the order book) and No. 7 Evergreen from Taiwan, a member of the “Ocean Alliance” (1.8 million TEU + 577,00 TEU).
