|
|
To reflect its growing
strength in the Asian trade, leading German
shipping line, Hapay-Lloyd has named its latest
addition to its growing fleet of mega sized
carriers Kuala Lumpur Express.
Hapag-Lloyds has deployed its new 8,749 teus
ship, Kuala Lumpur Express, in the EU4 service
loop between Europe and the Far East which makes
a stop at Northport in Port Klang.
Malaysia is an important market for Hapag-Lloyd’s
group in the Asia-Europe trade and that is why
we named one of our ships “Kuala Lumpur
Express”, said the Chairman of the Executive
Board of Hapag-Lloyd Ag, Michael Behrendt during
the maiden call of the containerships at
Northport.
“Trading relationship with Malaysia goes with
our first regular liner service from Europe in
1872, some 136 years ago. At that time, five
small ships of approximately 1,000 grt were
operated to Penang and on to Singapore, Hong
Kong and Shanghai. Today, the Kuala Lumpur
Express able to transport more than 100 times
this amount,” said Behrendt.
He said over the years cargo volumes carried by
the German shipping line from and to Malaysia
had grown considerably.
Hapag-Lloyds increased its total import and
export volume by more than six per cent to
approximately 120,000 teus in 2007.
This positive trend is expected to continue in
2008 and we are very encouraged in this regard
with the consistent performance of Northport, a
leading gateway port, said Behrendt.
He said Hapag-Lloyd’s customers in Malaysia
offered 25 weekly departures to ports all over
the world and it would be adding its other new
containerships to Port Klang.
The shipping company, which has a fleet of 140
container ships will be taking delivery of
another 14 new buildings in the next three
years. |
