Blue Economy
Hapag-Lloyd Posts Q1 Loss as Hormuz Blockade, Bad Weather Bite Global Shipping
Hapag-Lloyd Posts Q1 Loss as Hormuz Blockade, Bad Weather Bite Global Shipping
By Emetena Ikuku | Waterways News Correspondent | May 14, 2026
Global container shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd has recorded a bruising first quarter loss for 2026, as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and severe weather across major trade corridors hammered freight rates and disrupted supply chains worldwide — developments that carry direct implications for Nigerian importers and the flow of cargo through West African ports.
The Hamburg-based carrier, one of the world’s largest liner shipping companies with a fleet of 302 container vessels and a total capacity of 2.5 million TEU, posted a Group profit of negative USD 256 million (approximately EUR 219 million) for the January-to-March 2026 period. This marks a dramatic reversal from the USD 446 million profit recorded in the same quarter last year.
Group revenues fell by nearly 17 percent to EUR 4.2 billion, while Group EBIT — earnings before interest and taxes — slumped to negative USD 157 million, compared to a positive USD 463 million in Q1 2025.
Hormuz Blockade at the Heart of the Crisis
Central to the shipping line’s poor performance is the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime chokepoint connecting the Persian Gulf to global sea lanes. The strait has been virtually closed to commercial traffic since the United States and Israel began military operations against Iran in February 2026. Hundreds of commercial vessels and an estimated 20,000 seafarers have been unable to transit the waterway, forcing carriers to reroute ships on lengthy and costly detours.
Compounding the Hormuz crisis, the Red Sea remains a no-go zone for many carriers due to continued Houthi rebel attacks — a situation that has lingered since late 2023 and pushed shipping lines onto longer Cape of Good Hope routes, adding days and significant operating costs to voyages between Asia and Europe.
For Nigeria and the broader West African sub-region, these disruptions translate to longer transit times, tighter container availability, and sustained pressure on the cost of imported goods — from manufactured products to raw materials and food commodities.
Freight Rates Under Pressure
Average freight rates in the Liner Shipping segment fell to USD 1,330 per TEU in Q1 2026, down from USD 1,471 per TEU in the same period of 2025. Despite this, transport volumes held relatively steady at 3.2 million TEU — indicating that demand remains present, but shippers are unwilling or unable to absorb higher rates in an already squeezed environment.
Liner Shipping segment revenues declined to USD 4.8 billion (EUR 4.1 billion) as a result.
Terminal Segment Offers a Bright Spot
Not all the news was gloomy. The Terminal and Infrastructure segment posted modest growth, with revenues rising to USD 168 million (EUR 144 million) from USD 104 million a year earlier. The improvement was driven by the full consolidation of J M Baxi’s container business and volume growth in Latin America and India. Segment EBITDA rose to USD 47 million, and EBIT reached USD 18 million — a rare area of resilience within an otherwise difficult quarter.
CEO Vows to Stay the Course
Chief Executive Rolf Habben Jansen described the quarter as deeply unsatisfactory but signalled confidence in the company’s long-term strategy.
“The first quarter of 2026 was unsatisfactory for us, with weather-related supply chain disruptions and pressure on freight rates leading to significantly lower results. At the same time, our Gemini network has proven its resilience even under difficult conditions, helping us maintain a reliable service offering for our customers,” Habben Jansen said.
He added that the company remains committed to its Strategy 2030 roadmap and is pressing ahead with a planned merger agreement with Israeli carrier ZIM, which is seen as a key move to strengthen Hapag-Lloyd’s competitive position in an increasingly consolidating global market.
Full-Year Outlook Retained, But Uncertainty Looms
Despite the difficult start to the year, Hapag-Lloyd maintained its full-year 2026 earnings guidance. The company expects Group EBITDA to land between USD 1.1 billion and USD 3.1 billion, and Group EBIT to range between a loss of USD 1.5 billion and a profit of USD 0.5 billion.
However, the company was candid that the forecast carries substantial uncertainty, citing freight rate volatility and the unresolved conflict in the Middle East as the primary risks. The possibility of a full-year operating loss has not been ruled out.
Fellow carrier Maersk — Hapag-Lloyd’s partner under the Gemini Cooperation — similarly reported a collapse in Q1 profits, underlining that the challenges are industry-wide and not isolated to any single player.
Nigeria Watch: What This Means for Nigerian Shippers
For cargo owners, freight forwarders, and port operators in Nigeria, the Q1 results from a bellwether like Hapag-Lloyd serve as a barometer for what lies ahead. Volatile freight rates and rerouted vessels mean unpredictable schedules and elevated logistics costs — challenges that port stakeholders at Apapa, Tin Can Island, and Onne are likely to feel through the second quarter of the year.
With global container lines under pressure and capacity management tightening, Nigerian importers are advised to engage freight partners early, lock in forward bookings where possible, and factor extended transit times into supply chain planning for the months ahead.
Waterways News tracks developments in global and domestic maritime trade. For port updates, shipping intelligence, and maritime policy news, visit waterwaysnews.ng.
Blue Economy
Water Transport Operators Push For Recognition At The Table As FTAN Demands Tourism Policy Reforms
Water Transport Operators Push For Recognition At The Table As FTAN Demands Tourism Policy Reforms
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Nigeria’s tourism sector needs urgent policy reform, stronger collaboration and fresh investment to compete globally and water transport operators who are members of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) want that conversation to include the boats, ferries and waterway routes that move millions of Nigerians and could move even more tourists.
That was the underlying idea raised by Comrade Babatope Fajemirokun National President of Waterfront Boat Owners and Transporters Association of Nigeria (WABOTAN) represented by Chief Raymond Gold, National PRO of WABOTAN, at the ninth Nigeria Tourism Investors Forum and Exhibition (NTIFE), held over two days in Abuja under the theme “Tourism Transformation Through Collaboration, Policy Alignment and Investment.” The events took place between Thursday 30 to Friday 31 of July 2026. Waterfront Boat Owners and Transporters Association of Nigeria (WABOTAN), is a corporate member of FTAN
The forum drew policymakers, investors, tourism operators and development partners.
FTAN President Dr Aliyu Badaki used his welcome remarks to press the Federal Government to overhaul tourism-related laws and regulatory frameworks that he said breed duplication, institutional conflict and legal uncertainty for operators. He said the federation’s newly developed Tourism Transformation Mandate (TTM) is meant to unify every segment of the tourism value chain.
Babatope Fajemirokun, through Chief Gold emphasizes the fact that this value chain for Nigeria’s coastal cities, riverine communities and inland waterway corridors, runs directly through water transport.
Badaki argued that fragmented efforts and weak coordination have held back the sector for years, and called for regulation that enables rather than inhibits growth.
Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, who declared the forum open, described tourism as a strategic pillar for economic diversification. She said government cannot finance tourism transformation alone and that private capital must lead, with government’s role limited to creating an enabling environment for investors.
In his keynote address, Sen. Ibrahim Ida called for stronger collaboration among government, the private sector and host communities, saying tourism can generate jobs, foreign exchange and diversification if properly harnessed.
Panel sessions, moderated by Justina Ovat of Calabar Hospitality House Limited, featured Nigeria Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) Director-General Dr Ola Awakan, who called for policy consistency and investor-friendly incentives, and Dr Philip Maga of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), who flagged the need for stronger workforce training to close skills gaps across the hospitality industry.
Hospitality entrepreneur Lanre Balogun urged investors to prioritise disciplined, long-term planning.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigeria’s water transport sector, NTIFE’s reform push is not a side conversation. Rather, it is a direct stakeholder issue. FTAN’s corporate membership includes Waterfront Boat Owners and Transporters Association of Nigeria (WABOTAN) and the Association of Tourist Boat Operators and Water Transporters of Nigeria (ATBOWATON), both drawn from the ranks of operators who run the boats, ferries and water taxis that already serve Lagos’s creeks, the Niger Delta’s riverine towns and coastal leisure routes. Their presence inside FTAN means the federation’s demand for regulatory clarity and coordinated policy carries an inland-waterways and blue-economy dimension that goes beyond hotels and heritage sites.
That matters because water tourism sits at an awkward regulatory junction in Nigeria. A tourist boat operator answers not only to tourism authorities but potentially to NIWA, LASWA (in Lagos) and NIMASA on safety standards, and state government tourism boards, precisely the kind of overlapping jurisdiction Badaki described as breeding “duplication, institutional conflicts… and operational uncertainty.”
The 2026 Supreme Court ruling affirming NIWA’s regulatory authority over inland waterways nationwide, following the NIWA-LASWA jurisdictional dispute, is a live example of the kind of institutional friction FTAN’s Tourism Transformation Mandate is meant to resolve, at least on the tourism side.
Musawa’s call for private capital to lead tourism investment also lands squarely on water transport operators’ desks. Vessel acquisition, safety retrofitting, jetty infrastructure and life-jacket compliance all require capital that small-scale operators, including WABOTAN’s member-cooperative structure, have struggled to access, a gap that echoes the long-running CVFF disbursement failure in the cabotage shipping sector and underscores why financing bottlenecks are not unique to cargo and passenger shipping alone.
If FTAN’s push for policy alignment succeeds in drawing water transport formally into Nigeria’s tourism investment architecture, operators like WABOTAN and ATBOWATON could gain a stronger claim to inclusion in infrastructure programmes such as the Omi-Eko electric ferry project and LASWA’s ferry safety development initiatives, turning routine commuter water transport into a recognised leisure and tourism asset, not just a transportation afterthought.
For a sector accustomed to being regulated but rarely consulted, this call by Babatope Fajemirokun is a modest but meaningful call.
Blue Economy
NIMASA Deepens Seafarer Welfare Push, Signs Off Renewed Mission to Seafarers Collaboration
NIMASA Deepens Seafarer Welfare Push, Signs Off Renewed Mission to Seafarers Collaboration
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has restated its commitment to improving the welfare of Nigerian seafarers, pledging deeper collaboration with the Mission to Seafarers (MtS) as part of ongoing reforms in the sector.
The commitment came as the Director-General, Dr Dayo Mobereola, received a delegation from the Mission to Seafarers at the agency’s Lagos headquarters, led by the Chairman of MtS Lagos, Chief Adebayo Sarumi, alongside the Regional Director for Africa, Reverend Cedric Rautenbach.
Speaking on behalf of the DG, NIMASA’s Executive Director for Operations, Engr. Fatai Taiye Adeyemi, said the agency would continue tightening certification processes, expanding capacity development programmes, and strengthening welfare policies for seafarers both at sea and in port, in partnership with stakeholders such as the Mission to Seafarers.
Chief Sarumi commended NIMASA’s ongoing reforms and expressed confidence that closer collaboration would translate into tangible welfare gains for Nigerian maritime professionals. Reverend Rautenbach, for his part, clarified that while the Mission to Seafarers and Nigeria’s Port Welfare Committees pursue a shared objective which is the the wellbeing of seafarers. The two bodies operate on distinct, complementary mandates, making coordination between them essential to strengthening on-ground support at Nigerian ports.
The meeting covered decent working conditions, welfare service gaps, and areas of mutual collaboration. NIMASA said the engagement aligns with its obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006, and forms part of a broader push toward stronger regulatory oversight and stakeholder engagement on seafarer rights.
Nigeria Watch
Beyond the courtesy-visit optics, this meeting lands on a fault line that has dogged Nigerian seafarer welfare for years: fragmented institutional responsibility. NIMASA regulates and certifies; Port Welfare Committees are meant to deliver frontline services at berths; the Mission to Seafarers, a faith-based international NGO, fills gaps neither statutory body always reaches. These gaps are chaplaincy, shore leave support, emergency assistance, and advocacy for stranded or abandoned crew.
Rautenbach’s point about “distinct but complementary mandates” is worth pressing on, because in practice that distinction has often meant duplication in some areas and total absence in others.
Nigerian seafarers have long reported patchy access to welfare facilities at ports like Apapa, Tin Can Island, and Onne. Such reports include inconsistent internet access, poor rest facilities, and slow response to cases of wage default or abandonment by errant shipowners, issues MWUN has repeatedly raised in past CBA compliance disputes.
NIMASA’s MLC 2006 framing is the right one, but enforcement, not policy language, remains the industry’s persistent complaint. If this renewed MtS partnership is to mean more than another photo-op at headquarters, it should translate into a documented, port-by-port welfare service map: which ports have functioning seafarer centres, which Port Welfare Committees are actually active, and where the Mission to Seafarers’ Flying Angel network is present versus where seafarers are effectively on their own.
Nigerian crews calling at their own national ports deserve better than welfare support that depends on which NGO happens to be in town.
NIMASA Bets on Youths to Power Nigeria’s Blue Giant Ambitions
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has restated that the country’s push to become Africa’s “Blue Giant” will rise or fall on how well it equips young Nigerians for the blue economy, with the agency’s Director-General, Dr Dayo Mobereola, describing youth capacity-building as the engine room of the National Marine and Blue Economy Policy.
Mobereola made the point at the 10th Taiwo Afolabi Annual Maritime (TAAM) Lecture at the University of Lagos, where he was represented by NIMASA’s Director of Reforms Coordination and Blue Economy, Mrs Nneka Obianyor. He linked the agency’s youth agenda directly to President Bola Tinubu’s economic diversification drive, noting that the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, has directed NIMASA to prioritise skills development and job creation for young Nigerians in the sector.
Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Dayo Mobereola
To back that up, Mobereola pointed to a cluster of NIMASA programmes already running: the long-standing Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), a newly launched Blue Economy Accelerator Initiative, skills acquisition centres spread across the six geopolitical zones, and the rollout of Institutes of Maritime Studies in select Nigerian universities. He framed these as deliberate interventions meant to build capacity, generate employment, and spur innovation among the country’s youth population.
Separately, NIMASA used the UNILAG engagement to go beyond ceremony, running an interactive session with doctoral and master’s students on shipping development, maritime logistics, cabotage implementation, and maritime labour regulation. The session was led by the agency’s Director of Cabotage Services, Ms Gloria Anyasodo, and was pitched as part of a broader effort to strengthen ties between academia and industry in tackling the maritime sector’s practical challenges.
Nigeria Watch
The optics are good; the test, as always, will be delivery. NIMASA has no shortage of youth-facing initiatives on paper. The NSDP has existed for years, skills centres have been announced before, and Institutes of Maritime Studies have been floated in past budget cycles. What’s new here is the Blue Economy Accelerator Initiative, and it arrives with the same vagueness that has dogged similar rollouts: no disclosed funding envelope, no timeline for the six geopolitical zone centres to be fully operational, and no public framework for how graduates of these programmes are absorbed into shipping, logistics, or cabotage jobs afterward.
That absorption question matters more than any lecture-hall soundbite. Nigeria’s maritime training pipeline, from MAN Oron to the seafarer certification backlog that this publication has tracked, already produces more qualified hands than the domestic fleet and port ecosystem can currently employ. This is a mismatch tied directly to the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund’s decades-long disbursement failure and the slow pace of indigenous vessel acquisition. Training more youths without fixing that bottleneck simply shifts the frustration downstream, from unemployment to underemployment.
There’s also an accountability gap in how these announcements are made. They are usually made through a lecture delegation rather than a costed policy document. If NIMASA and the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy are serious about youths driving the Blue Giant ambition, the next disclosure should include enrolment numbers, the accelerator’s funding source, and most critically, the placement data showing how many NSDP and skills-centre graduates have actually found sea-time or shore-based maritime employment. Until then, this remains a well-intentioned promise stacked on top of several older, still-unfulfilled promises.
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