SSG No 10 - Shipgaz

HAPAG-lloYD SHIPPING AND SHIP MANAGEMENT
Sails auxiliary propulsion system used by
Beluga.
The 10,000 DWT multi-purpose heavylift
Beluga SkySails is said to have saved
10–15 per cent of fuel costs per day with
her 160 sq m kite. Stolberg said the kite
size was being doubled and new routes
introduced. Newbuildings on order would
also get SkySails, he said.
Nikolaus Schües at Reederei F Laeisz is
even more optimistic about the future than
Hans-Heinrich Nöll and has predicted even
better times ahead for German shipowners.
“I believe that an ideal time to invest in
ships will return in the next few years”, he
has been quoted as saying.
expansion all round
as Hapag-Lloyd clouds the issue
Uncertainty over the future of
Germany’s most prominent shipping
company, Hapag-Lloyd, and the
hoped-for, if unlikely, possibility that
it might just stay in German hands,
overshadowed the sector as SSG went
to press.
All the options remained open for Hapag-
Lloyd, and that apparently includes the
possibility of an NOL involvement, mooted
since the very beginning. In fact it was
According to Schües, it all depends on
the currently weak US Dollar and on the
expansion of shipyard capacities. Yards
are generally booked until 2012 so owners
currently have a long time to wait for their
ships. As a result, Schües says, negotiating
yards were very self-assured. “However,
that will certainly change in the next few
years”, he predicts.
Boom will continue
The Deutsche Bank’s Ralf Bedranowsky is
also enthusiastic about German shipping’s
future and says the shipping boom will continue,
with Asian business underpinning the
sector. However he also acknowledges that
With the 8,749 TEu bremen Express, named in March, Hapag-lloyd has expanded its fleet to
142 container ships of total 514,000 TEu.
reports that NOL was about to take over
the company that sparked off this year’s
spate of developments that eventually
led to the dramatic decision in March by
Hapag-Lloyd parent concern TUI to shed
the profitable container shipping concern.
TUI will now concentrate on tourism,
albeit tourism that will still make a contribution
to German shipping in the shape of
a new cruise shipping ingredient.
The likelihood that highly successful
Hapag-Lloyd might now be taken over by
rising costs will depress earnings and said it
was by no means certain that the container
shipping sector will be able to compensate
for rising costs through increased earnings
and higher freight rates. That applies particularly
to the bigger ships of 10,000 TEUs
and more, DB says. The bank also cautions
that the increasing supply of new tonnage
expected between 2009 and 2012 is likely to
cause charter rates to decline.
Also injecting a note of caution into the
debate is VDR Chairman Frank Leonhardt.
He says that despite current good times, “history
shows us that shipping is a cyclical business
and that hard times will return again”.
tom todd
Asian interests has made Germany very
jumpy indeed. That’s particularly the case
since it comes just after South Korea’s STX
bagged a big slice of shipbuilding giant
Aker and after Aker compounded the fear
of foreign take-overs by selling its German
shipyards to Russian interests.
The Hapag-Lloyd developments have
focused some attention on the possibility
of keeping the premier shipping firm in
German hands.
Joining forces
Prominent forwarder Klaus Michael
Kuehne and other, businessmen and politicians
alike, have expressed interest in joining
forces to secure a controlling stake in
Hapag-Lloyd. Kuehne has said it is in Germany’s
strategic interests to have its own
strong, global shipping company and he
has urged the City of Hamburg to play an
active role in such a participation. Others
said they would like to see Hapag-Lloyd
“remain an independent shipping company
based in Hamburg”.
However observers have pointed out
that a straight purchase of Hapag-Lloyd by
German interests alone appeared unlikely.
There did not seem to be sufficient financial
clout among the Germans to buy the
world’s fifth biggest shipping company,
which reports speculated would cost any
buyer a few billions of Euros.
TUI’s decision to shed Hapag-Lloyd,
60 SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • MAY 16, 2008