Hapag-lloyd, a German container shipping giant, has ordered another 75, 000 containers as global container traffic tightens. The containers are manufactured in China and will be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the company’s release yesterday. Since 2020, Hapag-Lloyd’s inventory has increased by 625,000 TEU (20-foot standard container).
The COMPANY’s CEO said that it usually takes about 50 days for containers to be reloaded, but due to severe “congestion” at ports and terminals around the world, the company’s containers can be reloaded in more than 60 days, so it currently lacks 20% of the corresponding container capacity.
Up to now, Hapag-Lloyd has more than 250 vessels and a transport capacity of about 1.8 million TEUS, with a total capacity of about 2.8 million containers.
It is worth mentioning that this order is the company’s third purchase of Chinese containers in nearly half a year:
The company announced on its website on April 14 that it had ordered 150,000 TEU of dry containers and freezers in China;
Hapag-lloyd announced on May 26 that it will purchase an additional 60,000 TEU of standard containers from China in response to the recent severe shortage of containers in the market.
Yesterday’s deal was worth about $280m, based on previous deals.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China produced 98.64 million cubic meters of metal containers in 2020, and exported 1.98 million standard containers. More than 95 per cent of the world’s containers are made in China.
From January to May this year, China’s metal container output totaled 83.15 million cubic meters, up 169 percent year-on-year in the same period in 2020 and 113 percent year-on-year in 2019, indicating a significant increase in container output. Container exports from January to May totaled 1.66 million TEUS, up 168% year-on-year in 2020 and 48.21% year-on-year in 2019.
