Hapag-Lloyd orders 8 8,750 TEU ships Korean shipyard
Hapag-Lloyd has resisted the challenge set by Maersk Line and its mammoth 'Emma Maersk' series by ordering another set of 8,750-TEU ships from South Korean shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries.
The eight-ship order will be delivered between December 2009 (two ships) and the end of the first half of 2010. The 103,000-deadweight-ton vessels will have a length of 335 meters (1,099 feet) and a beam of 43 meters (141 feet). Hapag-Lloyd will deploy the ships on routes to and from Asia.
The Hamburg-based carrier said it made the order in response to massive container volume growth estimates, citing Global Insight's expectations of global volume of 138 million standard containers by 2011, a rise of 40 million containers or over 40 percent compared with 2006.
Hapag-Lloyd previously ordered nine of the same dimension ships from HHI with the last arriving next year.
'With this order, Hapag-Lloyd is giving fleet homogeneity and thus savings in operational costs priority over opting for a ship size capable of transporting over 10,000-TEU,' said Michael Behrendt, chairman of the executive board of Hapag-Lloyd.
'We have had very positive results with the five units we already deploy. They are efficient and incorporate state-of-the-art technology, and they can be flexibly deployed on various routes if required by the market situation.'