Hapag-Lloyd is aiming to further enhance its container fleet with an order of an additional 60,000TEU in standard containers from China.
The Hamburg-based line has noted that the huge increase in demand has led to a shortage of boxes across the world. Additionally, it mentions that severe imbalances, such as with exports from Asia, but also owing to congestion in ports and delays in hinterland transports, are causing containers to be tied up in transit for considerably longer periods of time. As a result, more boxes are currently needed overall to manage the same transport volume.
For this reason, Hapag-Lloyd has decided to make a new investment in its container fleet after its huge order of 150,000TEU of dry and reefer boxes and another 8,000TEU of special containers in the previous month.
The first boxes of the latest order will supplement those currently being produced and are scheduled to be delivered to the German carrier as early as July and integrated into the existing fleet. The majority will be subsequently delivered in the third quarter.
“Demand continues to be very high, and the supply of container equipment is currently one of our industry’s biggest challenges and demands our full attention,” said Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, and went on to add, “To counteract the container shortage – but, most importantly, to offer our customers a better service – we have repeatedly invested in our container fleet since the beginning of the pandemic.”
