The war and its consequences for Hapag-Lloyd

Immediately after the war began, Hapag-Lloyd was the first liner shipping company worldwide to impose an immediate booking freeze for Ukraine and Russia. At the same time, a crisis team was set up to discuss all commercial and operational issues related to the war and to implement appropriate measures. The crisis team currently consists of 25 employees from various departments in Hamburg, Gdansk, Dubai and Genoa. The predominant topic at present are around 9,000 containers that were already en route to Russia or Ukraine on Hapag-Lloyd ships before the booking freeze.

In the crisis team we have to strictly check whether the cargo complies with the current sanction regulations. For example, no high-tech or dual-use goods may be imported into Russia. In addition, it must be checked whether the recipients of the goods are sanctioned persons. If the recipient of a container in our documentation turns up to be a company in Russia that can be assigned to a sanctioned person because they are the owner or involved, there is a so-called "red alert" and the container goes back to the original shipper.

Currently, many containers bound for Ukraine or Russia are stored at terminals in various European ports - mainly Constanta (Romania) and Istanbul (Turkey), as well as Hamburg and Rotterdam, but also in some Baltic countries. This poses considerable challenges, as port capacity is tight and additional containers block valuable storage space. In addition, considerable costs are incurred in storage, where it is important to find a solution before these costs exceed the value of the goods. This is particularly critical for reefer containers (i.e. containers with refrigerated goods), as these usually contain rapidly perishable foodstuffs.

The containers now at the ports have already undergone an extensive screening process to determine whether or not the shipments were sanctioned goods. In the coming weeks, approximately 1800 containers will be delivered to St. Petersburg via 3rd party feeders, which are non-sanctioned shipments. Due to the war, we immediately stopped shipments to Odessa. No ship calls Odessa anymore, therefore containers cannot be delivered to Ukraine by sea. Bookings to and from Russia and Belarus that took effect after the war have been stopped until further notice.

In addition to the commercial and operational crisis team, Hapag-Lloyd has also set up a humanitarian crisis team. This looks after the company's employees remaining in Ukraine. Some of them have already left the country and are taking the opportunity to work in other European offices of Hapag-Lloyd, for example in Izmir. However, many of the 20 Ukrainian employees in Odessa do not want to leave the country as they see their place in their homeland and want to stay with their family members.

The humanitarian crisis team also takes care of free or heavily discounted container transports with relief goods, among others for the United Nations. In addition, Hapag-Lloyd participates in truck transports with relief goods directly to the war-affected areas in Ukraine. Hapag-Lloyd employees have also taken in refugees at home. The company also made a donation to support the relief activities of the Hanseatic Help organisation in Hamburg.