Hamburg Süd

While it is wholly owned by A.P. Moller, Hamburg Süd operates independently and still maintains its own fleet as a subsidiary arm of Maersk Line. Shippers can follow Hamburg Süd vessels and receive real-time information about their containers during transit. Learn more about project44’s container track and trace program and how you can effortlessly incorporate high visibility into your supply chain.

Click this link to track Hamburg Süd containers now: Hamburg Süd Container Tracking 

Container Sailing Schedules from project44 gives you a complete and always up-to-date visibility of ship movements. Our vessel schedule tool gives you all the information for a specific vessel at a glance. That way, you can compare the ETAs and ETDs of different carriers for the same ship, or gather more insight information and transparency about vessel share agreements. Nothing could be easier and more advantageous.

Initially, the German shipping company included three steamships that sailed routes between Germany, Brazil, and Argentina. By 1914, the size of the Hamburg Süd fleet had grown to include 50 vessels, several of which were, at the time, high-speed steamships.

As a testament to the resilience of the company, during World War I, Hamburg Süd lost its entire fleet and was forced to rebuild using chartered ships. The company quickly grew its fleet again by 1939, commanding over 50 vessels. While losing an entire fleet would be enough to bankrupt most companies, Hamburg Süd remained solvent not once, but twice, having lost its entire fleet a second time during World War II. In 1951, six years after the war ended, Hamburg Süd resumed services, offering new routes between Europe and South America.

In 1952, Hamburg Süd began to offer tramp shipping to its operations. Tramp shipping varies from traditional liner shipping in that it doesn’t follow a fixed route, but instead, offered on-the-spot shipping that was both flexible and viable for a last-minute option to ship freight. This allowed the company to continue to offer a variety of services to its customers, including logistics, ship management, and even operated as a travel agency. 

Hamburg Süd continued to grow and build its fleet while expanding its services and operations. This included new routes to the Mediterranean, North America, and eventually Australia and New Zealand. The company also fueled its growth by acquiring several other companies over the decades, until its eventual acquisition by the world’s largest shipping company, A.P. Moller – Maersk. The Danish shipping company purchased Hamburg Süd on April 28^th, 2017 from the Oetker Group for EUR 3.7 billion.