MAERSK forwarding arm Damco's CEO Rolf Habben-Jansen, 47, has been appointed to take over as CEO of German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd on July 1, succeeding Michael Behrendt, 62, who has been in office 12 years.

Mr Habben-Jansen, who also served as an executive at Royal Nedlloyd and DHL and became CEO of Damco in 2009, will join the board on April 1.

Ulrich Kranich, 63, will vacate his seat on the board as chief operations officer, a post he has held since 2008, to Anthony Firmin, 59, a member of the lower level executive committee, who has worked at Hapag-Lloyd for 18 years.

Mr Behrendt will depart as planned on June 30, having already extended his contract a year at the request of shareholders. During his time as CEO, Hapag-Lloyd became one of the five biggest liner shipping companies in the world, partly because of the takeover of CP Ships.