Hapag-Lloyd voiced cautious optimism on Wednesday on the prospect of resuming shipping through the Strait of Hormuzafter a two-week ceasefire agreed between the U.S. and Iran, but said that resuming normal traffic throughout its network would take at least 6-8 weeks.
Speaking in a call to customers, CEO Rolf Habben Jansen echoed guarded remarks by peer container shipping group Maersk, saying that more security assurances were needed.
“Even if a ceasefire has now been agreed overnight, I would say that it’s fair to say that the conflict in the Middle East is still severely disrupting shipping, but also supply chains,” the Hapag CEO said, adding that the situation was “fluid”.
He estimated additional costs from the Middle East crisis at $50 million to $60 million a week and warned that the German company would have to pass on some of that to its customers. That was up from $40-$50 million stated previously.
He added that about 1,000 ships were still stuck in the region, six of which from his company with a combined capacity of about 25,000 standard containers.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Elke Ahlswede, Writing by Miranda Murray, Editing by Madeline Chambers)