New mega containership for Hapag-Lloyd

New mega containership for Hapag-Lloyd
Ongoing fleet expansion

The “Hanover Express”, which is capable of carrying 8,750 containers, is one of the world’s largest containerships. The newbuilding was named today in Hamburg. The patron was Gabriele Frenzel, wife of TUI’s CEO and chairman of the supervisory board of Hapag-Lloyd, Dr. Michael Frenzel.

Naming ceremonies for large containerships are still something special even in Hamburg, and nearly 300 guests from business and politics – including the Mayor of Hamburg Ole von Beust and the Mayor of Hanover Bernd Strauch – attended the event at Container Terminal Altenwerder, at the quays of which the “Hanover Express” had berthed. Hapag-Lloyd’s latest newbuilding was named by Gabriele Frenzel.

The new ship sailing under German flag can carry 8,750 standard containers. If these boxes were placed end to end they would cover a distance of over 50 km. With her length of 335m and beam of 43m, the “Hanover Express” has the dimensions of three football fields. The height from the keel to the top of the radarmast is 60m.

The “Hanover Express” is deployed between Europe and Far East, calling in Europe at Hamburg and Rotterdam and in Asia Singapore, Port Kelang and all major ports in China. This service is offered in the context of the Grand Alliance, the leading integrated consortium in liner shipping. A round voyage takes 63 days.

“Container transport remains a growth market. And there are no signs whatsoever that this will change,” emphasised Michael Behrendt, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd AG, in his naming ceremony speech. The newbuildings coming on to the market are urgently required to cope with the expected growth.

Global container transport volume will increase from about 100m standard containers to more than 155m containers by 2012, according to the forecast institute Global Insight. That would mean growth of more than 50 percent in only six years. To claim an appropriate share of this growth, Hapag-Lloyd is taking delivery of ten more newbuildings up to 2010. They will be sister ships of the “Hanover Express” and identical to this in size and capacity. Like the “Hanover Express”, these vessels are also being built at Hyundai Heavy Industries in Korea.

Adolf Adrion, executive board member of Hapag-Lloyd AG for liner shipping, pointed out in his speech that Hapag-Lloyd based in Hamburg is one of the most important customers of the port. “Our share of container transhipment in Hamburg has surged from seven to eleven percent since the acquisition of CP Ships,” he noted. Along with the other partners of the Grand Alliance – MISC Berhad (Malaysia), NYK (Japan) and OOCL (Hong Kong) – Hapag-Lloyd accounts for about 35 percent of container throughput in Hamburg.

Hapag-Lloyd belongs to the top five container transport carriers. It is represented with about 340 sales offices in over 100 countries. Its 77 liner services link ports on all five continents. With the delivery of the “Hanover Express”, the fleet comprises 143 containerships with a total capacity of 500,000 standard containers (TEU). Hapag-Lloyd transported approx. 2.7m TEU in the first half of 2007, 9 percent more than in the first half of 2006.

The official naming ceremony photo (from l. to r.):
Dr. Michael Frenzel (Chairman of the Executive Board of TUI AG), Hamburg’s First Mayor Ole von Beust, sponsor Gabriele Frenzel, Michael Behrendt (Chairman of the Executive Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG)