The three of us together would be stronger,” Juergen Weber told Hamburger Abendblatt, a Hamburg-based newspaper.
Weber said he hopes the talks with CSAV would be a “warning and motivation” for the Oetker family, which owns Hamburg Süd, to revive merger talks with Hapag-Lloyd that were suspended in March.
Negotiations between the two Hamburg-based lines broke down after the two sides failed to agree on the ownership structure of a combined carrier.
Earlier this month, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Michael Behrendt said the merger talks with CSAV could trigger further consolidation that would help narrow the gap with the top three carriers — Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co. and CMA CGM.
The City of Hamburg, which owns 36.9 percent of Hapag-Lloyd, has been pressing Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg Süd to reopen merger talks to create a German carrier to rival the industry leaders.
Klaus Michael Kuehne, the billionaire owner of Swiss-based logistics group Kuehne+Nagel who has a 28.2 percent stake in Hapag-Lloyd, has also urged Hamburg Süd to return to the negotiating table.
Weber said Hapag-Lloyd’s shareholders, which also include German tourist group TUI with a 22 percent stake, want to float shares in the company via an initial public offering. But this is “hardly possible” before the end of 2014 as a new CEO is due to take over from Behrendt next year.
A merger between Hapag-Lloyd, currently the world’s sixth-largest carrier, and CSAV, ranked 20th, would create the world’s fourth-largest line after CMA CGM, with a combined capacity of just over 1 million 20-foot-equivalent units and a 5.6 percent market share.
Hamburg Süd is the world’s 13th largest carrier, according to industry analyst Alphaliner, with a capacity of 455,000 TEUs and a 2.6 percent world market share.
