Hapag-Lloyd has ordered 150,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in an effort to combat slow turn times. The cost — about $550 million — represents one of the German ocean carrier’s largest container orders ever.
Import surges at U.S. ports, labor shortages caused by COVID-19 outbreaks and severe port congestion, particularly on the West Coast, all have contributed to a slow turnaround of containers to be sent empty back to Asia to be refilled.
Hapag-Lloyd said in the announcement it “needs...