Holiday Letter from the CEO – Thank You for a Successful 2025

As the holidays approach, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you – and reflect on a year that has been both demanding and rewarding. We have navigated challenging seas, with a complex market shaped by ongoing geopolitical uncertainties and elevated costs. Yet, at Hapag-Lloyd, we have stayed the course. Looking back, we successfully navigated the challenges, took strategic measures, and seized key opportunities – further strengthening our position as an industry leader in innovation, operational performance, and service quality. Your continued trust has been essential to that progress.

More quality across the board
This year, we have made significant progress in bringing Strategy 2030 to life. Becoming your "Undisputed Number One for Quality" is our guiding commitment to you. We focused on delivering on our Quality Promises, strengthening operational performance, and making it easier as well as more transparent to do business with us. Our two Customer Experience Surveys (CES) this year delivered our strongest results yet, showing that our efforts are making a real difference. You’ve told us that your planning security is improving, our responses and issue resolutions are faster, bookings are easier, and your overall digital experience is more convenient – clear proof that we’re moving steadily in the right direction.

More reliability for your supply chain
This year also marked the start of our Gemini Cooperation, through which we are delivering tangible benefits to your supply chains. Thanks to our effective hub & spoke model, we can deploy larger vessels and thus optimize speed, reduce idling times, and cut carbon emissions – all of which saves you time and resources. Rest assured, we continue to deliver on our industry-leading schedule reliability of around 90%, which remains strong despite market volatility. And our journey doesn’t end here. We will keep refining the network, helping you plan more accurately and capture additional cost-saving opportunities.

More transparency for you
Over the course of 2025, we enhanced our smart container tracking tool Live Position tool – including the new Live ETA feature – giving you full transparency into your shipment and container data. By integrating it into our Quick Quotes family, Live Position is now even easier for you to use. To date, we have equipped more than 1.7 million dry container boxes with the technology, making us the first shipping company to deploy it on a large, global scale – an achievement that helps maintain our consistently high digital customer experience ratings.

More support for your sustainability ambitions
We remain committed to an ambitious decarbonization path, aiming to operate a net-zero fleet as early as 2045. In 2025, we made considerable progress: all 12 ultra-large, dual-fuel container vessels of the Hamburg Express class have been delivered, completing one of the most ambitious fleet-expansion programs in our history. In addition, we are expanding our fleet with new ammonia-ready vessels and smaller-class ships, while retrofitting existing vessels – further advancing efficiency, sustainability, and future-ready operations. Complementing these efforts, our Ship Green option allows you to actively participate in reducing emissions. So far, over 1,500 customers have already shipped more than 650,000 TEUs in a more sustainable way with us.

More presence for you
This year, Hanseatic Global Terminals (HGT) has made considerable progress. Today, our equity stakes in 21 terminals across 11 countries are managed under the HGT brand. We expanded our network with a new terminal in Le Havre, France, and we will grow our global presence in the years ahead. This worldwide network will play a crucial role in strengthening our operations, thereby enhancing your customer experience with Hapag-Lloyd.

Looking ahead
I want to thank you for the trust and cooperation you have shown us in 2025. On behalf of everyone at Hapag-Lloyd, I wish you and your loved ones a peaceful holiday season, a well-deserved rest, and a successful start to the new year. We look forward to continuing our journey with you in 2026 and supporting your business with even greater reliability, transparency, and quality.

With warm regards,