Cash Buyers Expect Cheap Ships

Hapag-Lloyd is in the market for 10 containerships – and is “paying cash so expects to get some bargains.” That’s the New Year message for shipyards from Gunther Casjens, the director who heads up the group’s liner division. In fact, according to chairman Bernd Wrede, H-L will spend DM 3 billion across the group in its five year plan to 2000, averaging DM 600 million expenditure a year.

The group is going ahead with its bold investment program, even though senior management, including Casjens, feels that the market faces worsening over-capacity in 1996 and 1997. Casjens says the liner sector will improve after that, and judging by the age profile of vessels, he expects some of the older ones to be making their way to the scrapyards by the end of the century. “We are building ships exactly in line with our own demand,” he said. Half of the new capacity will cover replacement of older tonnage and the other half will cover the market growth H-L expects.

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