Hapag-Lloyd
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.
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 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.
| Origin | Destination | Transit | Frequency | Corridor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 is followed by six numeric digits and a single check digit. Blue Water Facts no longer publishes a per-carrier owner-prefix list (see /accuracy/ for why); confirm the operator via the carrier's own tracking portal or your 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 schedule data lives with the operating carrier, not the equipment owner. 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:
- Maersk Line — Copenhagen, Denmark, founded 1904. SCAC MAEU.
- Sealand Maersk — Charlotte, USA, founded 1960. SCAC SEJJ.
- Rickmers Linie — Hamburg, Germany, founded 1834. SCAC RICK.
- BBC Chartering — Leer, Germany, founded 1997. SCAC BBCH.
- Team Lines — Hamburg, Germany, founded 1991. SCAC TLLU.
- Sloman Neptun — Bremen, Germany, founded 1873. SCAC SLNE.