Hapag-Lloyd to Deliver 8 Newbuildings in 2009

Hapag-Lloyd announced a newbuilding program for eight vessels for delivery in December 2009 (two ships) and in the first half of 2010. It is planned to deploy the newbuildings on the routes to and from Asia, which continue to account for the highest growth in container transport. The newbuildings are to be built at the South Korean shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries. They will have a length of 335m and a beam of 43m and each be able to carry 8,750 standard containers (TEU). The units will have a deadweight capacity of 103,000t and measure over 60m from keel to superstructure. With this order, Hapag-Lloyd is giving fleet homogeneity and thus savings in operational costs priority over opting for a ship size capable of transporting over 10,000 TEU.