In a persistently difficult operating environment, container handling volumes at Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) remained 5.7 percent down on the previous year at 3.2 million TEU in the first half of 2016. By contrast, container transport of the intermodal companies experienced further growth, increasing by 6.2 percent to 694 thousand TEU.
Revenue at group level was down slightly on the previous year’s figure at approximately EUR 573 million. Adjusted for the one-off restructuring expense of almost EUR 15 million which was fully recognised in the half-yearly figures, the group’s operating result (EBIT) almost matched the previous year’s at just under EUR 82 million.
Klaus-Dieter Peters, Chairman of HHLA’s Executive Board, on the course of business in the first half-year: “Thanks to our successfully implemented, long-term diversification strategy, we were once again able to compensate for developments in the Container segment – which were adversely affected by a persistently difficult operating environment – with pleasing growth in the Intermodal segment. In view of persistently weak growth momentum in global trade and international container throughput, and given the unchanged infrastructure deficits at the Port of Hamburg, container handling volumes at our terminals remained subdued.”
In the first half of 2016, throughput at HHLA’s container terminals was down by 5.7 percent on the first six months of the previous year, at 3.2 million TEU. While the Container Terminal Odessa handled 132 thousand TEU – 5.9 percent more containers than in the same period of the previous year – container throughput at the Hamburg terminals fell by 6.2 percent to 3.1 million TEU. This was largely due to persistently weak Asia traffic (Far East–Northern Europe), which was down by 9 percent on the first six months of 2015.
HHLA’s intermodal companies grew their transport volume in the highly competitive market for hinterland container traffic. This development was largely driven by rail transportation, which increased by 8.6 percent. As a result, revenue in the Intermodal segment grew by 5.5 percent to almost EUR 191 million. Meanwhile, the segment’s operating result (EBIT) considerably outperformed the growth in volumes and revenue, climbing by 25.5 percent to almost EUR 34 million. The use of additional own locomotives and wagons had a noticeable impact here.
