Hapag-Lloyd

HAPAG

Headquarters of Hapag-Lloyd in Hamburg

The Hamburg-Amerikanische Paketfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft for shipping across the Atlantic Ocean was founded in Hamburg. In 1912, Hapag built the first of their "Big Three" ocean liners; the Imperator, followed by her sister Vaterland. The third sister, Bismarck, was under construction at the outbreak of World War I and was completed after the war for White Star Line as the Majestic. These were the first liners to exceed 50,000 gross tons and 900 feet in length.

During World War I, the majority of Hapag's fleet of 175 ships were wiped out, and most of the surviving ships (including the "Big Three") had to be turned over to the winning side as war reparations. After war's end, Hapag rebuilt its fleet with much smaller ships than before the war, but their fleet was again mostly wiped out during World War II, with surviving ships turned over to allied powers.

North German Lloyd

The NDL liner Kaiser Wilhelm II, which made its maiden voyage in 1903

Flagships of North German Lloyd - Bremen and Europa

Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) was formed in 1856 in the City-State of Bremen, offering passenger and cargo transportation between Bremen and New York, with an emphasis on emigration to the United States. Service started in June with the Bremen, the first of three steamships, and the company established its American base at Hoboken, New Jersey. NDL eventually built a large fleet of ships that carried many thousands of emigrants westwards, with a peak of 240,000 passengers across the Atlantic in 1913 alone.^[2]

The outbreak of World War I resulted in the internment of its 135-vessel fleet at Hoboken, which status was changed to confiscation when the US entered the war in 1917. Likewise, its Hoboken base was confiscated, and turned over to the US Navy, which used it as a transshipping point for the duration.^[2]

Operations were resumed in 1922, when NDL was able to purchase its former base from the United States Alien Property Administrator. NDL launched a new Bremen and Europa in 1929–30.^[2]

At the start of World War II, NDL repeated the World War I experience, with its fleet again being confiscated when the US entered the war in 1941. The lone exception was the Bremen, which raced across the Atlantic, and achieved protection at Murmansk in 1939, later moving on to her namesake city where she remained for the duration of the war.^[2]

Passenger service resumed in 1954 with the MS Berlin, formerly the Swedish American Line's Gripsholm. Later two other second-hand ships, SS Bremen (formerly Pasteur) and MS Europa (formerly Swedish American Line's Kungsholm), were purchased.

Service continued as before, but it was decided that there were too many competitors in a transportation environment where the airliner was taking the most frequent customers away. This resulted in NDL’s merger with the Hamburg-America Line in 1970.

NDL attained several speed records over the years. Among them, was the record for the run between Southampton and New York of eight days in 1881, which was set by the Elbe, and held until 1900; and the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing set by the new Bremen in 1929 (see Blue Riband).^[2]

Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd container ship Düsseldorf Express

The Colombo Express, 8700 TEU container ship owned and operated by Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag and NGL continued to compete until establishing a joint-venture container line in 1968 in order to share the huge investments related to the containerisation of their fleets. Both companies finally merged on September 1, 1970 under the name Hapag-Lloyd.

Hapag-Lloyd was acquired in 1998 by TUI AG (Hanover), a tourism conglomerate, and became its fully owned subsidiary in 2002.^[3] In the course of the integration into TUI AG, all tourism-related activities such as the charter airline and travel agencies were transferred to TUI AG. A retrenchment from that position through an offering of a minority of Hapag-Lloyd's shares on the stock market was planned in 2004. As part of that process, its business units other than the container line and cruise line were planned for divestiture.

In 2008 TUI announced an intention to sell its entire stake in Hapag-Lloyd shipping activities before the end of that year. Industry speculation predicted a sale price of approximately $US5.9 billion.^[4]

CP Ships Limited

On 21 August 2005, TUI AG agreed to acquire the Canadian business CP Ships Limited for €1.7 billion (US$2.0 billion) in cash. The deal which was approved by the boards of both CP Ships, TUI, and the shareholders has been successful. It has now made the combined fleet the fifth-largest by capacity in the worldwide container shipping market.^[5] In 2006 the CP Ships name disappeared for good.

Hamburg Süd

In 2013, Hapag-Lloyd announced it was considering the possibility of a merger with its smaller compatriot Hamburg Süd. The merger plans were scotched when Hamburg Süd's shareholders and owners did not agree to the final offer made by Hapag-Lloyd stakeholders.^[6] After this event, Hamburg Süd remained a private, independent company until December 2016, when the container transport division of Danish logistics and energy company; Maersk, announced it would purchase Hamburg Süd at a price of 4.02 billion USD.^[7]

Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV)

In 2014, Hapag-Lloyd acquired Chile's Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores SA (CSAV). The merger made Hapag-Lloyd the fourth-largest container-shipping company in the world.^[8][9]

United Arab Shipping Company (UASC)

In April 2016 Hapag-Lloyd announced it was in merger talks with UASC. The merger was agreed upon later in 2016 and the integration between the two companies was completed in 2017. At the time of the merger, UASC was reported to be the world's 10th largest liner shipping company with a fleet of 56 ships and a market share of 2.7%.^[10] As a result of the merger Hapag-Lloyd became the world's fifth largest container transporter in terms of vessel capacity, surpassing Taiwan's Evergreen Line. The merger also entailed that UASC would become the largest shareholder in the new mega-entity, but Hapag-Lloyd would become the sole operator of the combined fleet.^[11]

Container transportation

• Hapag-Lloyd's cellular vessel fleet and TEU ownership ranks fifth globally in terms of capacity, ahead of Taiwan's Evergreen Line and behind China's Cosco Shipping.
• Hapag-Lloyd transports containerized cargo on several major trade routes around the world. It has a prominent market presence and brand recognition in Latin America, Middle East, trans-Atlantic, and trans-Pacific trades, among others.
• Hapag-Lloyd is currently the largest member of the Transport High Efficiency vessel-slot sharing alliance, which was created in April 2017 and also includes Taiwan's Yang Ming Line and the Japanese carriers Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Nippon Yusen Kaisha, and Mitsui OSK Lines.^[12][13]

Cruise liner and tourism

• Offers international cruises on several vessels.
• Private jet services also available to customers.

Former ships

• MS Europa (1965) - 1970–1981.
• MS Finnstar - chartered 1979–1980.
• MS Europa (1981) - 1981–1999.
• MS Columbus 2 - chartered 2012–2014.

Chartered ships

• MS Columbus - 1997–2012