German first lady Elke Büdenbender performed on Monday the ceremonial christening of Hapag-Lloyd’s new ship Berlin Express at the container terminal Burchardkai (Athabaskakai) in the port of Hamburg.
Berlin Express is the first ship of the new Hamburg Express class, which marks the beginning of a new era for Hapag-Lloyd and its fleet.
In total, a dozen state-of-the-art large container ships will be put into service by 2025. Together, these vessels will make an important contribution to Hapag-Lloyd’s efforts to operate its entire fleet in a climate-neutral manner by 2045.
Due the cutting-edge dual-fuel technology, the ships will be able to operate using non-fossil fuels, such as bio-methane and e-methane.
Hapag-Lloyd’s believes that the advanced components – an optimised hull and a highly efficient propeller – will help the ships to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Rolf Habben Jansen, chief executive of Hapag-Lloyd stated: “With the new Hamburg Express class, Hapag-Lloyd is at a turning point.”
“The highly efficient ships will allow us to reduce our emissions immediately and to a very significant degree. At the same time, they are an important building block in our strategy to gradually push ahead with decarbonisation. All the vessels in this class will sail under German flag and thereby make an important contribution to strengthening Germany as a shipping hub,” Habben Jansen added.
The “Berlin Express” was built at the Hanwha Ocean shipyard in South Korea. With a length of almost 400 metres and a capacity of 23,600 teu, it is the largest cargo ship ever to sail under German flag.
The container ships in the Hamburg Express class will exclusively operate on the cargo-intensive Far East route between Asia and Europe. The “Berlin Express” will operate regularly on the FE3 service, which sails between Ningbo and Hamburg, via Xiamen, Kaohsiung, Yantian, Hong Kong, Singapore and Rotterdam.
It’s worth noting that some 300 guests from business and politics attended the christening ceremony of the Berlin Express.
Among the guests were Peter Tschentscher, the first Mayor of Hamburg, and Daniel Günther, the minister president of Schleswig-Holstein.
