German container ship operators Hapag-Lloyd and Hamburg Sud are to consider possible merger talks, according to a brief but less than detailed press release issued by both companies.

Earlier this year Hapag-Lloyd’s biggest single investor, Klaus-Michael Kuehne told a German newspaper he thought the two companies should merge so that their combined forces could compete with the biggest containership operators, Maersk, MSC and CMA-CGM.

More at the Shipping Times