CP Ships to be purchased by Hapag Lloyd/TUI (Ich glaube, mich laust der Affe)

TUI, the parent of Hapag-Lloyd Container Line, Germany's biggest container shipping line, has agreed to a $2.1 billion cash bid for rival CP Ships in a deal that will create the world's fifth-largest container carrier.

The merger of Hapag-Lloyd, the world's 12th-largest carrier , and 16th-ranked CP Ships, will crea te the world's number five container line, just behind France's CMA CGM, with a fleet of 135 ships with capacity of 406, 000 TEUs operating on over 100 routes. The two carriers had a further 26 ships of nearly 110,000 TEUs on order as of May 1.

This still leaves Hamburg Sud on the market, which was trying to convince TUI/Hapag-Lloyd to merge their operations earlier this year. Could this be the next step for further consolidation? What of CMA-CGM? Chine Shipping? If you hear any good rumors, let me klnow!