Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company, the 5th biggest in the world. It was formed in 1970 through a merger of

Hamburg-American Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent Germ ...

(HAPAG) and

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of th ...

History

The company was formed on 1 September 1970, by the merger of two German transportation/maritime companies, Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG), founded in 1847, and

(known in English as North German Lloyd), which was formed in 1857. Since its formation, Hapag-Lloyd has seen changes among its shareholders and has also undergone a number of mergers with other companies. For instance, Hapag-Lloyd was completely acquired by, and became a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

TUI AG TUI AG ( trading as TUI Group) is a German multinational leisure, travel and tourism company; it is the largest such company in the world. TUI is an acronym for ''Touristik Union International'' ("Tourism Union International"). TUI AG was known ...

(

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

) in 1998. This transition was followed by TUI selling a majority stake of Hapag-Lloyd to private investors in Hamburg in 2009 and further sales in 2012. Other important events in the history of the company include Hapag-Lloyd's acquisition of

CP Ships CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canada's largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships fr ...

in 2005 as well as Hapag-Lloyd's merger with the container business of CSAV in 2014, and United Arab Shipping Company in 2017.

HAPAG

The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft for shipping across the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

was founded in Hamburg. In 1912, HAPAG built the first of their "Big Three" ocean liners; the ''

Imperator The title of ''imperator'' ( ) originally meant the rough equivalent of ''commander'' under the Roman Republic. Later, it became a part of the titulature of the Roman Emperors as their praenomen. The Roman emperors generally based their autho ...

'', followed by its twin '' Vaterland''. A third twin, '' Bismarck'', was under construction at the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and was completed after the war for

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping line. Founded out of the remains of a defunct Packet trade, packet company, it gradually grew to become one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world, providing passenger and cargo service ...

as the ''Majestic''. These were the first liners to exceed 50,000 gross register tons and 900 feet (274 m) in length. During

, 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 the 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 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and the surviving ships turned over to Allied powers.

Norddeutscher Lloyd

Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) was formed in 1857 in the City-State of

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

, offering passenger and cargo transportation between Bremen and New York, with an emphasis on emigration to the United States. Service started in June 1858 with the ''Bremen'', the first of four steamships, and the company established its American base at

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the ...

. NDL eventually built a large fleet of ships that carried many thousands of emigrants westwards, with around 218,000 passengers transported across the Atlantic in 1913 alone. The outbreak of

resulted in the internment of 32 vessels in US ports, a status later 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 of the war. As with HAPAG, the NDL ships surviving the war were eventually confiscated as reparation, leaving the company to start over from scratch. US operations were resumed in 1922, when NDL was able to purchase its former base from the United States Alien Property Administrator. NDL launched new liners ''

'' and ''

Europa Europa may refer to: Places * Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace * Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro * Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development * Europa Cliffs, Alexan ...

'' in 1928–30. During World War II, NDL repeated its World War I experience, with some parts of its fleet again being interned at the outbreak of the war, while a number of vessels remained under NDL control. One such exception was the ''Bremen'', which raced across the Atlantic, and achieved protection at

Murmansk Murmansk () is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far Far North (Russia), northwest part of Russia. It is the world's largest city north of the Arctic Circle and sits on both slopes and banks of a modest fjord, Ko ...

in 1939, before eventually making a dash for Bremerhaven, where she was ultimately destroyed by a fire in 1941. Passenger service resumed in 1954 with the ''Gripsholm'' formerly belonging to the ''

Swedish American Line Swedish American Line (, abbr. SAL) was a Swedish passenger shipping line. It was founded in December 1914 under the name Rederiaktiebolaget Sverige-Nordamerika and began ocean liner service from Gothenburg to New York City, New York in 1915. ...

'' (the ship was renamed to only the following year). Later two other second-hand ships, (formerly ''Pasteur'') and (formerly Swedish American Line's ''Kungsholm''), were purchased. NDL attained several speed records over the years. Notable among them was the record for the run between

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

of eight days in 1881, which was set by the ''Elbe''; and the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing set by the new ''Bremen'' in 1929 (see

Blue Riband The Blue Riband () is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest Velocity, average speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until ...

Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag and NDL continued to compete until they established a joint-venture container line. The "Hapag-Lloyd Container Line", founded in 1967 and operating from 1968 onward, was established to share the huge investments related to the containerisation of the fleets. The two companies finally merged on 1 September 1970, under the name Hapag-Lloyd. Hapag-Lloyd was acquired in 1998 by Preussag AG (since 2002 named

(

)), a tourism conglomerate, and became its fully-owned subsidiary in 2002. In August 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 US$5.9 billion. In October 2019, Hapag-Lloyd acquired a 10 percent stake in Container Terminal 3 (TC3) of the Tangier Med 2 port in Morocco. In April 2022, Hapag-Lloyd acquired a participation in JadeWeserPort Wilhelmshaven, taking ownership of a 30 percent stake in Container Terminal Wilhellmshaven (CTW) and a 50 percent stake in Rail Terminal Wilhelmshaven (RTW). On 12 January 2023, Hapag-Lloyd acquired a 49% minority stake in Spinelli Group, an Italian terminal and transport operator. Around three months later, on 19 April 2023, Hapag-Lloyd also acquired a 40% stake in J M Baxi Ports & Logistics Limited (JMBPL), a terminal and inland transport service provider in India. In August 2023, it was announced Hapag-Lloyd had acquired SM SAAM's terminal business and related logistics services in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

. Since then, Hapag-Lloyd's business activities have been divided into the segments of Liner Shipping on the one hand and Terminal & Infrastructure on the other. The Terminal & Infrastructure division has been operating under the brand name “Hanseatic Global Terminals” since July 2024. It is a fully owned but independent stand-alone business unit based in Rotterdam. Also in 2023, Hapag-Lloyd and the Brazilian shipping and waterway logistics company Norsul set up a new joint venture called “Norcoast”. Based on a 50-50 partnership, Norcoast started offering container cabotage and feeder services in Brazilian ports in the first quarter of 2024.

Corporate affairs

Business trends

In the 2024 financial year, Hapag-Lloyd generated revenue of €19.1 billion. During the same financial year, 16,905 employees worked for the group.

Mergers and acquisitions

CP Ships Limited

On 21 August 2005, TUI AG agreed to acquire the Canadian business CP Ships Limited for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

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, was a success, and made the combined fleet the fifth-largest by capacity in the worldwide container shipping market. Colombo

Hamburg Süd

In late 2012, Hapag-Lloyd announced it was considering the possibility of a merger with its smaller compatriot

Hamburg Süd Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft A/S & Co KG, widely known as Hamburg Süd, was a German container shipping company. Founded in 1871, Hamburg Süd was among the market leaders in the North–South trade. It also served a ...

. The merger plans were scotched when Hamburg Süd's shareholders and owners did not reach an agreement with the Hapag-Lloyd stakeholders. 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 (), usually known simply as Maersk ( ), is a Danish Freight transport, shipping and logistics company founded in 1904 by Arnold Peter Møller and his father Peter Mærsk Møller. Maersk's business activities include Port operator, port operat ...

, announced it would purchase Hamburg Süd.

Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV)

In 2014, Hapag-Lloyd took over the container business of Chile's Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores SA ( CSAV), with the latter becoming a major shareholder of Hapag-Lloyd. This made Hapag-Lloyd the fourth-largest container-shipping company in the world at the time.

United Arab Shipping Company (UASC)

In April 2016, Hapag-Lloyd announced it was in merger talks with the United Arab Shipping Company (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 percent. As a result of the merger, Hapag-Lloyd strengthened its position as the world's fifth-largest container transporter in terms of vessel capacity, ahead of Taiwan's Evergreen Line. As a result of the merger, the former shareholders of UASC would become the largest shareholder in the new entity, whilst Hapag-Lloyd would absorb all operations and assets of UASC. Historically United Arab Shipping Company was jointly established in July 1976 by the six shareholding governments of the Arab states of the Gulf (

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

). Originally based in Kuwait, its corporate headquarters then moved to Dubai during the Iraqi conflict, and only some departments were moved back after the war. The UASC fleet operated more than 45 services, connecting the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, the Mediterranean, Indian Sub-continent,

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

and the Americas. Its network covered over 220 ports, offering containerized and conventional cargo shipping by a fleet of 58 owned and chartered vessels. On 29 June 2016, UASC's six shareholding states voted unanimously to approve the proposed merger. The deal gave a relative valuation of the two businesses at 72 percent for Hapag-Lloyd and 28 percent for UASC. At the time of the merger, UASC was 51 percent owned by Qatar and 35 percent owned by Saudi Arabia government, with the remainder held by other Arab states.

NileDutch Transport & Shipping

In March 2021, Hapag-Lloyd announced the acquisition of Nile Dutch Investments B.V., a leading container service provider to and from West Africa. The transaction was effectively closed on 8 July 2021.

Deutsche Afrika-Linien

On 1 June 2022, Hapag-Lloyd closed the acquisition of the container liner business of German carrier Deutsche Afrika-Linien (DAL), another Africa specialist, operating with liner services between Europe, South Africa and the Indian Ocean.

Container transportation

*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 ("THE Alliance"), which was created in April 2017 and also includes Taiwan's Yang Ming Line, Korea's HMM and the Japanese carrier Ocean Network Express (ONE). THE Alliance covers East-Westbound trades with 255 container ships and 29 services.

Fleet

Some emblematic group's vessels are: * '' MS München'' (1972) *''

Tokio Express ''Tokio Express'' was a German-registered container ship built by Blohm + Voss in Hamburg in 1973 for Hapag-Lloyd. She formed part of the early generation of large-capacity container vessels developed during the expansion of global trade in the ...

'' (1973) *'' Yantian Express'' (2012), formerly ''Shanghai Express'' (2002) *'' Houston Express'' (2005) *'' Savannah Express'' (2005) *'' Colombo Express'' (2005) *'' Kyoto Express'' (2005) * ''Chicago Express'' (2006) *'' Osaka Express'' (2007) *'' Tsingtao Express'' (2007) *'' Hong Kong Express'' (2013)

Former business

Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten

Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten later named

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company, the 5th biggest in the world. It was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and Norddeutscher Lloyd. History The company was for ...

was a former

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

subsidiary of Hapag-Lloyd AG. In 2008,

integrated Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten. It was renamed Hapag-Lloyd Cruises in 2016. In 2020, Hapag-Lloyd Kreuzfahrten was sold to TUI Cruises, a joint venture between TUI and Royal Caribbean.

Airline activities

Hapag-Lloyd founded the charter airline

Hapag-Lloyd Flug Hapag-Lloyd Flug GmbH (known as Hapagfly GmbH between 2005 and 2007) was a German leisure airline headquartered in Langenhagen, Lower Saxony, that was originally founded by Hapag-Lloyd and later became a subsidiary of TUI Group. It operated sc ...

in 1972, buying a few

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...

s to fly its cruise passengers from Germany to the cruises' ports of call. The airline eventually added some regular passenger flights as well. Hapag-Lloyd Flug used the IATA code HF and became a directly owned subsidiary of Preussag AG (now renamed as

TUI Group TUI AG (trading as TUI Group) is a German multinational leisure, travel and tourism company; it is the largest such company in the world. TUI is an acronym for ''Touristik Union International'' ("Tourism Union International"). TUI AG was known a ...

) in 1999.

Accidents and incidents

''Colombo Express''

On 29 September 2014, the container ship '' Colombo Express'' was involved in a collision with the container ship ''Maersk Tanjong'', and sustained a 20-metre (65 ft) dent to its left side and caused delays to traffic through the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal (; , ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, Indo-Mediterranean, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest ...

References

External links

Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd Cruises

TUI AG (Hanover)

GG Archives

GG Archives {{Authority control Companies based in Hamburg Transport in Hamburg Shipping companies of Germany Cruise lines Container shipping companies Transport companies established in 1970 German brands 1970 establishments in West Germany German companies established in 1970 Companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange