“Demand is very strong”

Hapag-Lloyd is heading for a good annual result after a weak start to the current financial year. In the third quarter, Germany's leading shipping company achieved an operating profit (EBIT) of 935 million euros, compared to 190 million euros in the same quarter of the previous year.

The consolidated result relevant for the dividend rose to 860 million euros in the third quarter, after 138 million euros a year earlier. The total net result for the first nine months of this year is still around 135 million euros below the value for the first three quarters of 2025. Given the continued strong business in the current fourth quarter, the company expects annual results to be “clearly above the previous year's level,” it said at a presentation on Thursday. The city of Hamburg has a 13.9 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd.

Hapag-Lloyd wants to resume the passage through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea soon, said shipping company boss Rolf Habben Jansen: “We are working on it, and I am happy that we are doing it step by step.” Most container liner shipping companies had stopped their liner services through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea since the end of 2023 after the Iran-allied Shiite Houthi militia in Yemen began shelling or hijacking merchant ships in the Red Sea. The ship passage around South Africa as an alternative route to the Red Sea currently ties up around twelve percent of global container shipping capacity.

In September, the Houthis advanced further along the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea and occupied a strategically important island there. Habben Jansen still considers the risk of driving there again to be justifiable. “The safety of the seafarers, the ships and the cargo” remains a “top priority,” said the shipping company boss. However, container ships in the Bab al-Mandab Strait “have not been shot at for some time.”

The shipping company Maersk, a partner of Hapag-Lloyd in the Alliance Gemini Cooperation, has been sailing the Suez Canal regularly again for a few weeks with a few ships. At Hapag-Lloyd, using the canal passage and the shortcut from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean and back would free up “the capacity of ten ships,” said Habben Jansen. On the long route between Europe and the Far East, the shipping companies' largest ships, or at least comparatively very large container freighters, usually travel through the Suez Canal. Hapag-Lloyd currently operates a total of around 300 container ships.

Habben Jansen also continues to show confidence in the shipping company's other problem. They are currently hoping to be able to take over the Israeli shipping company ZIM with a “significantly improved offer”. The Israeli government had repeatedly spoken out against a takeover of ZIM, which, among other things, also transports weapons for the Israeli army, for reasons of national security. Two sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia and Qatar have stakes in Hapag-Lloyd. The shipping company has been trying to dispel the Israeli side's concerns with intensive discussions for months. With the takeover of ZIM, the board of Hapag-Lloyd wants to stabilize the company's position as the fifth largest container liner shipping company in the world.

All of this is taking place against the backdrop of currently “very strong demand” in global container shipping, said Habben Jansen. Predictions of growing overcapacity in the international fleet of container ships have not been confirmed. For this year and next, the industry expects growth of four percent in the volume of international seaborne container transport.

Nevertheless, the market remains extremely tense in view of global crises and wars such as that of the USA and Israel against Iran or Russia's war against Ukraine. In particular, the Iran war and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which is important for oil transport, have also led to significantly rising fuel costs for shipping in recent months. In addition, there are currently climatic influences such as a particularly strong storm season in Asia, which is leading to longer waiting times in the Far Eastern ports.

Habben Jansen made the pressure in the market clear with the example of very short-term transport prices for containers, the spot market for so-called freight rates. Before the pandemic, the short-term price deviated from the normal contract price for a standard 20-foot container "perhaps $500 up or down," he said. “Currently we could see a short-term upward deviation of $5,000 to $8,000.” Shipping companies and shippers would therefore have to develop “better contract models” in order to bring more stability to the market.