19.05.00
The event was something entirely new in the company's 153-year history: today Hapag-Lloyd celebrated a twin naming at the shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, Korea. The two containerships "Bremen Express" and "Tokyo Express" were built next to one another in the same dock. After the keel-laying on January 10th 2000 the container giants were completed in under four months. The 4,890 TEU vessels have a length of 294 metres, a width of 32 metres and a capacity of 67,000 tonnes. Service speed is 24 knots. Both ships sail under German flag.
The "Bremen Express" was named by Birgit Müller, wife of Götz-Michael Müller, managing director of the brewery Beck & Co. in Bremen, while the "Tokyo Express" was named by Andrea Casjens, wife of Günther Casjens, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd Container Line.
In his speech to 250 guests from the Asian region, Bernd Wrede, chairman of the executive board of Hapag-Lloyd AG, painted a positive picture of Asian economic developments, commenting that many countries have already made a rapid recovery after the crisis in Asia, exceeding indeed all expectations: "Although exports have served as the main growth engine to date, the increasing growth in imports is now an indicator of the recovery of the economies." He added that Hapag-Lloyd welcomes this development, as the considerable imbalance in imports and exports up to now has caused substantial increases in costs for all shipping lines.
Günther Casjens emphasized that Hapag-Lloyd plans to remain on a growth course. Hapag-Lloyd is putting four more identical newbuildings into service in the next few months. By the end of the year its fleet will consist of 29 large containerships. All ships will be deployed within the context of the Grand Alliance, the world's largest consortium in international liner shipping. Apart from Hapag-Lloyd, the members of the alliance are four shipping lines from Asia and Europe. The partners deploy over 100 vessels in joint services on the main shipping routes between Europe, Asia and America.
Hapag-Lloyd will be continuing to expand its fleet in the next few years in order to claim a fair share of the fast growth in international container transport, which is expanding at between six and eight percent annually. In March 2000 it ordered four 7,200 TEU containerships, which will be among the largest vessels worldwide, once again from Hyundai Heavy Industries, based in Ulsan, Korea. The vessels are due for delivery between 2001 and 2003. As Günther Casjens pointed out: "This order means our step into a new ship generation."
Asia has played an important role for Hapag-Lloyd for many years. At the end of the 19th century Hapag and Norddeutscher Lloyd, the founding companies of Hapag-Lloyd AG, operated "imperial mail steamship lines", which created new sales opportunities for foreign trade. Today Hapag-Lloyd is represented with its own offices at 37 locations in the Asian-Pacific area. The headquarters of Region Asia/Australia is in Singapore.
With the ship's name "Bremen Express" Hapag-Lloyd is emphasizing its link with Germany, while the "Tokyo Express" represents our commitment in the Asian region, along with our ships "Hong Kong Express" and "Shanghai Express".
The names "Bremen" and "Tokyo" have a great tradition at Hapag-Lloyd. The "Bremen Express" named today is already the third containership bearing this name and the "Tokyo Express" the second, although the name of the city is written for the first time in the internationally used English spelling.
The New Ships
CMV Bremen Express - CMV Tokyo Express
Flag: German
Port of Registry: Hamburg
Yard: Hyundai/Korea
Length o. a.: 294,00 m
Length b.p.: 283,20 m
Moulded breadth: 32,20 m
Height to first deck: 21,80 m
Draft: 13,57 m
Tonnage: 67.250 tdw
Container capacity: 4.890 TEU
Class: Germanischer Lloyd
Speed: 24 knots
Main engine: MAN B&W 7K98MC 40040 KW
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