Hapag Lloyd gets its SA base in place

ALAN PEAT THE GERMAN container line Hapag Lloyd now has its own presence in SA, with head office in Durban and sales offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Heading up the line’s operation is MD Gudrun Feil, supported in the Durban head office by Alison Millar as customer services director, Tim Phillips as operations director, and Alison Barnes as business administration director. The line, in a slot-charter agreement with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), is now marketing an SA Express (SAX) service linking the European ports of Felixstowe, Hamburg, Antwerp and Le Havre with SA calls at Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban – and return. This replaces Hapag Lloyd’s original plan to introduce its own four ships of 1200-TEU capacity on a fortnightly frequency – but with the MSC link-up it is able to offer its services weekly. Despite FTW contact with German-based public relations director Klaus Heims, no further plans for the SA trade have yet been released.