When Hapag and Lloyd combined to form a global player

Cast off: We’re starting the year with a major anniversary! Fifty years ago, the long-established shipping companies Hapag and North German Lloyd merged to form a single player: Hapag-Lloyd. Today, we are one of the market leaders in the container shipping industry.

They were competitors, but also close. Just as the two Hanseatic cities of Bremen and Hamburg have always competed with each other, the relationship between the North German companies was also marked by phases of rivalry and cooperation at the same time. This led to what was called an “amicable marriage of convenience” in the words of Albert Ballin (1857-1918), Hapag’s director-general from 1899 to 1918. The primarily goal of their collaboration was to conclude contracts with each other as well as with international partners in order to avoid ruinous competition – and secure profits. In addition, Ballin and Heinrich Wiegand, then-head of North German Lloyd, concluded a contract in 1894 to set up a joint liner service between Mediterranean ports and New York – a popular route for emigrants. In the early years of the 20th century, the two companies grew to become status symbols of the German Empire. Their network of liner services stretched across the entire world. While Hapag had the world’s largest fleet, North German Lloyd transported the most passengers. Their collaboration was a mutual success.

Containerisation necessitates a reorientation

When global freight traffic finally picked up in the 1960s, there was a correspondingly larger need for bigger ships and new transport technologies. The structural change that this precipitated forced companies involved in overseas liner shipping to use their resources in a sensible way and to boost their capital expenditures. Transporting goods in standardized containers became more and more important – and containerisation picked up speed. Hapag and North German Lloyd recognized the opportunities presented by joining forces. The merger in 1970 enabled the resulting shipping company to cope even better with the increasing demands of global trade. And it marked the beginning of the success story of the modern Hapag-Lloyd AG.

In a constant state of flux

Today, Hapag-Lloyd can look back on almost 173 years of combined history in which the company has constantly reinvented itself and adapted to changing market conditions. This ability to adapt has made us one of the five largest liner shipping companies in the world. In line with our corporate strategy, we are increasingly focusing on quality and to put our customers in the centre of all we do.