In rough times for the shipping industry, Germany's largest container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd is focusing on expanding its terminal business.

The Hamburg-based group will remain a liner shipping company at heart, said Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen at an online press conference on Tuesday. However, the company intends to acquire stakes in a further ten to 15 port terminals at strategically important locations by 2030. Hapag-Lloyd currently holds shares in 20 terminals. When expanding this area, Hapag-Lloyd wants to have strategic and operational control of the business at the quay walls if possible, emphasized Habben Jansen.

"We don't think much of owning many minority shares." However, there are some in the company's portfolio. So far, the long-established Hamburg-based group has stakes in terminals in the Hanseatic city itself, in Wilhelmshaven and in ports in Europe, Latin America, the USA, India and North Africa. The Middle and Far East are now also being targeted. India is also a key market for Hapag-Lloyd's overall business, as are Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific liner services.

The company is currently the fifth-largest container shipping company in the world after Switzerland-based MSC, Denmark's Maersk, CMA CGM from France and Cosco from China. According to the Strategy 2030 presented on Tuesday, Hapag-Lloyd wants to "consolidate" its position in the top five. With this goal in mind, Group CEO Habben Jansen is aiming to grow slightly faster than the market in the coming years.

The challenges for Hapag-Lloyd, as for the entire industry, have increased significantly. While exceptional profits were still achieved during the coronavirus pandemic due to fragile supply chains and the resulting rapid rise in freight prices, fluctuating rates, potential overcapacity due to many new ships and the effects of geopolitical conflicts are now on the agenda. Following a slump in profits in 2023, Hapag-Lloyd is bracing itself for a further decline in earnings in 2024.

The annual forecast remains unchanged, the CEO explained on Tuesday in response to a question. The outlook does not appear to have worsened, even though the escalation in the conflict between Israel and Iran has now been added to the crisis in the Red Sea. Hapag-Lloyd and other major shipping companies are avoiding the important Suez Canal following attacks on merchant ships by Houthi rebels from Yemen. Habben Jansen said that an end to the costly and time-consuming detour around the southern tip was not in sight for the time being. With regard to Iran and the Persian Gulf, he added that it was still too early to make any statements about the potential impact on his own business: "We are keeping our fingers crossed that this is not the case."

(Report by Elke Ahlswede, edited by Ralf Bode. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)