ContainerPulse Liner intelligence
Match the 4-letter prefix on any container to its operator in our liner registry of 200+ carriers.

Hapag-Lloyd

SCAC HLCU · Hamburg, Germany · founded 1970 · Gemini Cooperation

Hapag-Lloyd (legal entity Hapag-Lloyd AG) is a mega-carrier headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. Founded in 1970, the line has spent 56 years building out its container service network and today operates a fleet of 308 vessels under the SCAC code HLCU. Total operated capacity stands near 2,300,000 TEU, placing the carrier among the recognised operators on its core trade lanes. The company holds intermodal equipment under 6 registered ISO 6346 owner prefixes, which appear on every box it owns or long-term leases.

Hapag-Lloyd is most active on the following corridors: Asia-Europe, Transatlantic, Latin America, Middle East. Through its membership of the Gemini Cooperation, the carrier shares vessel capacity with Maersk Line on East-West services. Direct customer contact is available via +49 40 3001 0 or the carrier's web portal at hapag-lloyd.com.

Hapag-Lloyd container prefixes

Every intermodal container carries an ISO 6346 owner code — three letters identifying the owner, plus a single category letter (almost always U for freight containers). These four-letter prefixes are the fastest way to identify which carrier controls a given box. Hapag-Lloyd has the following registered prefixes recorded in the BIC database. If a container in your possession begins with any of these codes, the box is owned by or leased on long term to Hapag-Lloyd.

To track a container under one of these prefixes, contact the carrier directly using the bill-of-lading number or container number. Most ocean carriers expose a public tracking endpoint on their website that accepts either format. Hapag-Lloyd publishes its tracking page under the main hapag-lloyd.com domain.

Hapag-Lloyd sample transit times

Indicative point-to-point transit times for services on which Hapag-Lloyd appears in rotation. Actual ETAs vary with vessel rotation, port congestion, weather and trans-shipment patterns. We update these figures every quarter against published carrier schedules.

OriginDestinationTransitFrequencyCorridor
Shanghai, China Rotterdam, Netherlands 32 days Daily sailings via 7 services Asia-Europe
Ningbo, China Hamburg, Germany 35 days Multiple weekly Asia-Europe
Qingdao, China Antwerp, Belgium 36 days Weekly Asia-Europe
Ningbo, China Genoa, Italy 30 days Weekly Asia-Mediterranean

See all 8 corridors served by Hapag-Lloyd →

How to track a Hapag-Lloyd container

Tracking a Hapag-Lloyd container starts with confirming the prefix. Look at the container's left-hand corner casting plate or the painted code on the door — the four-letter ISO 6346 owner code (e.g. HLBU) is followed by six numeric digits and a single check digit. If the prefix matches one in the list above, the box is on a Hapag-Lloyd bill of lading. Visit hapag-lloyd.com, navigate to the carrier's tracking or "track and trace" portal, and paste the full container number. The portal will return current vessel position, the next scheduled port call, the estimated time of arrival (ETA) and the most recent equipment events such as gate-in, loaded, discharged and gate-out.

If the carrier portal does not return a result, the most likely causes are: the container has not yet been gate-in at the origin terminal, the bill of lading number is in a different format (check whether the system expects an MBL versus an HBL), or the box is moving on a partner alliance vessel rather than a Hapag-Lloyd hull. In the last case, the prefix still resolves to Hapag-Lloyd as equipment owner but the schedule data lives with the operating carrier. Hapag-Lloyd's customer service can normally cross-reference the booking and route you to the correct alliance partner. Reach the carrier on +49 40 3001 0 during European business hours.

Related ocean carriers

Operators most often compared with Hapag-Lloyd on overlapping trade lanes: