Comment / Reading the runes on Hapag-Lloyd's port expansion push

© Petr Flégl

Two key lines in Hapag-Lloyd’s Prepare for Tomorrow strategy document, presented to investors at its 2021 Capital Markets Day around a year ago and oft referred to during last week’s earnings call, stood out: “Transhipment operations are complex and costly”.

And thus it would “consolidate transhipment volumes at strategically selected hubs”. And secondly, on its M&A strategy, the goal is to “strengthen the core and improve quality through equity investments and acquisitions”, where the core is liner shipping, and terminal and ...