Size matters, but bigger ships not only solution

Rolf Habben Jansen shares his views on the outlook for the container shipping industry, where operators including Hapag-Lloyd have been struggling under the pressures of weaker trade growth and a supply glut.

I think we have the lens and levers in our organisation to make money. We are robust enough to be back to profitability within the next 24 months. Irrespective of freight rates, we will come up with an approach that allows us to be back in the black by 2016 at the latest.

Size definitely matters, but it is not the only thing that matters. Building bigger ships is not the answer to all of our problems in the industry. We talk a lot about ship size and the economics of big ships. But vessel cost is only a portion of our total cost. Other components, such as fuel and land-based costs, also need to be taken into account. We are in a complex industry and it's too simple to make it just about ship size. As long as you get one thing right, you'll either make or lose money? It's not as simple as that.