Largest order of refrigerated containers in the history of Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd is investing a two-part sum of millions in its container fleet and has ordered 6,000 altogether, refrigerated containers (“Reefer”; corresponds to 12,000 TEU). The company is already one of the largest Reefer-carriers worldwide. Because of this strong position, Hapag-Lloyd can benefit not only from increasing transport volumes, but also from the North-South routes, such as the Latin-American routes.

“We operate the fourth-largest refrigerated container-fleet in the world. With the nw Reefers we are further expanding our leading position in this specialty business with special requirements, and thus will benefit from the growing Reefer market”, says Rolf Habben Jansen CEO of Hapag-Lloyd AG. “With the optimized fleet, we are well equipped for the traffic in Latin America, which is important to the Reefer business, and on time for the opening of the broadened Panama Canal next year.”

To this end, already in April Hapag Lloyd has ordered five new 10,500 TEU ships with a high number of spaces for refrigerated containers. 2,100 Reefers can be connected to each of these ships. The newly built ships will mainly be deployed in traffic to and from South America, because this region is among the strongest Reefer markets worldwide. The new Reefers should be integrated into the container fleet step by step in the coming weeks.

“With the new Reefers, we are making additional modern and high-quality equipment available for our customers. Coupled with our technical and operative know-how, we bring the most demanding cooled freight securely to its destination. Our customers appreciate the efficiency of our processes, as well as the dependability,” says Anthony J. Firmin, Chief Operating Officer of Hapag-Lloyd.

Among other things, Hapag-Lloyd uses the Reefer for transporting temperature sensitive cargo such as fruit, vegetables and pharmaceutical products, but also for meat and fish. Around 1,000 of the newly ordered containers are equipped with the so-called Controlled-Atmosphere technology, which increases the shelf life of certain fruit- and vegetable types while maintaining the same quality. Furthermore, the modern containers have cooling units of the highest efficiency class. At the same performance and temperature accuracy, they noticeably reduce energy usage thanks to an optimized control system.

Source: www.hapag-lloyd.de