Reaction: Hapag Lloyd Not Slashing Its Fleet

German carrier Hapag Lloyd did not slash its fleet by 23 ships and it has no lay ups, the company’s spokesperson told World Maritime News reacting to media reports.

The reports on fleet reduction emerged following a company presentation at a dinner on Tuesday evening for Hamburg-based journalists.

According to Hapag, the presentation included figures that compared the company’s fleet from 2014 to 30 Sep. 2015. The figures show that the company had 175 ships instead of 198 after the merger with CSAV, and 946,000 TEU instead of approx. 1 million TEU capacity, down by 5 percent.

“We received newbuilds in between, chartered in and out a lot over the 9 months and we got rid of 16 old ships-5 were scrapped and rest sold to other shipping companies,” the company said in a statement.

Hapag added that the sold ships in question were over 20 years old, therefore after the new Panama locks open, these will be scrapped as well.

As disclosed, the changes in fleet capacity took place in the nine-month-period and are not a single action taken as a measure to deal with tough market conditions.

The reaction comes as the company announces launching of New Black Sea Mediterranean Express (BMX) service.

From mid-February, the new short sea service will be launched providing a weekly connection between ports in Egypt, Israel, Turkey and major Black Sea ports.

Three ships with a nominal capacity of 1,700 TEU each and a high number of reefers plugs will be deployed in the BMX service. The first voyage will commence from Damietta on February 16.

The port rotation is: Damietta • Port Said (East) • Ashdod • Istanbul (Mardas & Marport) • Novorossiysk • Odessa • Constanta • Istanbul • Izmit • Izmir • Damietta

World Maritime News Staff