Hapag-Lloyd, which has so far focused mainly on East-West services, is expanding its African network by starting a service to South Africa in mid-October.
“The southern and west regions of Africa represent an attractive market for container transport with considerable development potential. We will thus be serving all five continents for the
first time in our company’s history,” commented Adolf Adrion, executive board member of Hapag-Lloyd AG, with reference to the start of a liner service linking Northern Europe with ports in South and West Africa.
A total of four ships capable of carrying approx. 1,200
standard containers (TEU) and equipped with 200 reefer plugs will be deployed in the new fortnightly service. The first departure of the South Africa Express (SAX) from Hamburg is scheduled for October 15th 2006. Ports of call will be: Hamburg, Antwerp, Le Havre, Lisbon, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Cape Town, Dakar, Lisbon, Thamesport and Hamburg again. The round voyage will take 56 days, with each vessel covering approx. 15,000 nautical miles, or nearly 28,000 km.
The Port of Dakar in Senegal will function as a central transhipment hub serving additional West African ports, including Tema (Ghana), Abidjan (Ivory Coast) and Lagos (Nigeria). Dakar is also called at by the Europe-East Coast South America service.
Hapag-Lloyd will soon establish its own South African offices in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. The Area will be headed by Gudrun Feil, who has a long and international experience in shipping for Hapag-Lloyd. Customers in southern Africa will be supported on all aspects of logistics by her team. Area South Africa is part of the newly established Region Southern Europe under Glenn Hards. Hapag-Lloyd is represented in Dakar via the agency Somicoa.