Hapag-Lloyd

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Headquarters of Hapag-Lloyd in Hamburg

The "Düsseldorf Express" Hapag-Lloyd Container Ship

Hapag-Lloyd is a German transportation company comprising a cargo container shipping line, Hapag-Lloyd Container Line, and a cruise line, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. It was formed in 1970 as a merger of two 19th Century companies, Hapag, which dated from 1847, and Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) or North German Lloyd (NGL), which was formed in 1856. Hapag-Lloyd was acquired in 1998 by TUI AG (Hanover) and became its fully-owned subsidiary in 2002.

1 Hapag
2 NGL/NDL
3 Hapag-Lloyd
4 CP Ships Limited
5 Hapag-Lloyd Global Services Pvt. Ltd
6 External links
7 References

[edit] Hapag

Hamburg businessmen founded the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft company, (Hamburg America Line), for shipping across the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1891, Albert Ballin invented the cruise liner, which would later be incorporated into both the Hapag and NGL ship fleets.

In 1910, Hapag became involved in the aviation industry for the first time, sponsoring Zeppelin flights.

In 1912, Hapag built the first of their "Big Three" ocean liners; the Imperator, followed by her sisters Vaterland and Bismarck. These were the first liners to exceed 50,000 gross tons and 900 feet in length.

During World War I, the entire Hapag fleet of 175 ships was wiped out. Many ocean liners were lost during the conflict, leading to Ballin's suicide in 1918. After war's end, Hapag rebuilt its fleet with much smaller ships than before the war, but their fleet was again wiped out during World War II.

See also Saale disaster.

[edit] NGL/NDL

NDL was formed in 1856 in Bremen, offering shipping service between Bremerhaven and New York, and building a large fleet of ships that carried 240,000 passengers across the Atlantic in 1913 alone. The outbreak of World War I resulted in the loss or seizure of NDL's entire fleet of 135 ships.

Operations were resumed in 1922, and NDL launched the Bremen and Europa in 1929-1930.

During World War II the entire fleet was again lost. The Swedish American Line Gripsholm was acquired in 1954, and another Bremen, formerly Pasteur, and Europa (Kungsholm), were launched.

[edit] Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag and NGL continued to compete until establishing a joint-venture container line in 1968 and finally merging in 1970 under the name Hapag-Lloyd. On September 1, 1970, the NDL merged operations with Hapag.

The conglomerate founded the charter airline Hapag-Lloyd Airlines in 1972, buying a few Boeing 727s to fly its cruise passengers from Germany to the cruises' ports of call. The airline eventually added some regular passenger flights as well.

Hapag-Lloyd was acquired in 1998 by TUI AG (Hanover), a tourism conglomerate, and became its fully-owned subsidiary in 2002. A retrenchment from that position through an offering of a minority of Hapag-Lloyd's shares on the stock market was planned in 2004. As part of that process, its business units other than the container line and cruise line were planned for divestiture.

Hapag-Lloyd Express, a low-fare, high-frequency airline, was initiated in the early 2000s. These eponymous companies are not owned by Hapag-Lloyd, however, but by TUI. The air routes which are operated by them fall under the IATA coded of HF.

[edit] CP Ships Limited

On 21 August 2005, TUI AG agreed to acquire CP Ships Limited for €1.7 billion (US$2.0 billion) in cash. The deal which was approved by the boards of both CP Ships, TUI , and the Shareholders has been successful. It has now made the combined fleet the fifth largest by capacity in the worldwide container shipping market. [1]

[edit] Hapag-Lloyd Global Services Pvt. Ltd

Hapag Lloyd Global Services Pvt. Ltd. better known as the Global Processing Center or GPC located in India with offices in Mumbai and Chennai has been doing some critical work for the Hapag Lloyd global organization since the first quarter of this year.

GPC Mission Statement
" To partner with our customers globally in delivering enhanced value, through Process Excellence and Cost Leadership."