SOUTH AFRICA – Hapag-Lloyd, a global shipping company mainly transporting agricultural goods out of Africa, has successfully acquired the container liner business of German carrier Deutsche Afrika-Linien (DAL).
The deal will enable Hapag-Lloyd to have a firmer presence in the South African region and offer its customers a better network and additional port coverage in this region.
“We are very pleased with the closing of the transaction and looking forward to welcoming the DAL colleagues.
“With their broad experience and market knowledge, they will significantly support us to further grow in Africa, which remains an important strategic market for us. We will now fully integrate the DAL’s container liner activities into our business,” said Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd.
DAL is an established liner shipping company for the transportation of containerised cargo and operates with four liner services between Europe, South Africa and the Indian Ocean.
Headquartered in Hamburg, it is represented with own offices in Germany and South Africa as well as through third-party agents in 47 countries worldwide.
DAL owns a 6,589 TEU container ship and operates a container fleet of around 17,800 boxes (owned and leased), which will be taken over as part of the acquisition.
The logistic company has recently been extending its presence in the region as in March 2021 it opened a new office in Kenya as part of its growth strategy in Africa, with its main business managed from the port city of Mombasa, supported by an office in Nairobi.
This was aimed to further enhance the company’s regular inland connections to and from Mombasa with landlocked East African countries – such as Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.
As part of its growth strategy, the shipping company is seeking to develop inland connections to Somalia, Southern Ethiopia and Northern Tanzania.
Still seeking further growth, Hapag-Lloyd, took full ownership of the Dutch container shipping company Nile Dutch Investments B.V. the same year.
With over 40 years of expertise, NileDutch is one the leading providers of container services from and to West Africa.
The company is present in 85 locations across the world and has 16 own offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Singapore, China, Angola, Congo and Cameroon.
It currently offers 10 liner services, around 35,000 TEU of transport capacity and a container fleet of around 80,000 TEU, connecting Europe, Asia and Latin America with West and South Africa.
The deal was followed with its opening of two offices in Morocco.
With a fleet of 248 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 1.8 million TEU, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies.
The Company has a container capacity of approximately 3.0 million TEU – including one of the largest and most modern fleets of reefer containers.
Its 123 liner services worldwide ensure fast and reliable connections between more than 600 ports on all the continents.
Liked this article? Subscribe to Food Business Africa News, our regular email newsletters with the latest news insights from Africa and the World’s food and agro industry. SUBSCRIBE HERE
