Hapag-Lloyd orders 150,000 TEU to address container shortage

In order to tackle the global shortage of cargo containers, German shipping major Hapag-Lloyd has placed an order for containers worth about $550 million.

On top of the pandemic and delayed shipments due to port congestion, shippers and forwarders worldwide have had to cope with an added complication — a shortage of boxes to ship their goods. The fact is that because boxes are turning slower, shipping companies need more than the normal number of containers to carry the same volume.

For this reason, Hapag-Lloyd has placed another big order for containers – just as it did in 2020 in its initial response to the pandemic. This is said to be one of the biggest container orders that Hapag-Lloyd has ever made.

Some of the 150,000 TEU of standard dry and reefer boxes have already been delivered this year and integrated into Hapag-Lloyd’s container fleet. However, the majority of these boxes will be delivered by Chinese manufacturers in the months ahead and before the end of 2021.

What’s more, Hapag-Lloyd has ordered 8,000 TEU of special containers to be used for oversized and dangerous goods.

“The container shipping industry is currently seeing unprecedented demand, which has led to a shortage of containers all over the world,” Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, commented.

“With its recent container orders, Hapag-Lloyd is contributing to efforts to ease the current situation.”

With a fleet of 237 containerships and a total transport capacity of 1.7 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd has a container capacity of approximately 2.7 million TEU.