German “Hapag Lloyd” expects an increase in the volume of demand for maritime transport

 

Rolf Happen Janssen, CEO of the largest container transport company in Germany, “Hapag Lloyd”, confirmed that the global shipping market directs an unprecedented demand for cargo shipment, and this situation is expected to extend to the second half of this year.

“We are still witnessing reservations on ships in a very strong way,” Janssen said, ruling out any decline in the volume of demand during the current period.

He added that during the second quarter and possibly the third quarter we will continue to see high rates, as there is simply less capacity available

Hapag-Lloyd, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, is the fifth largest container line in the world over the past year, along with its competitors, in an effort to adjust capacity to meet wide fluctuations in factory production and consumer demand during closings and reopening after opening some factories after gradually controlling Corona epidemic.

“There are delays at sea freight ports in Europe,” Janssen said, noting that this will lead to a further slowdown in trade flows, and “the availability of empty containers will be difficult during the next 6-8 weeks

He added that in the United States, import companies faced a problem due to bottlenecks and delays in the main ports, indicating that there is a noticeable improvement, but slowly, he expected a return to normal by the end of the second quarter or early third quarter of this year.

He expected that the next four weeks will witness particularly great congestion problems, and that there will be some congestion in shipping in Asia

Janssen” explained that the shipping market and his company need more new containers, and also demands its customers to quickly return the containers in its fleet as soon as possible