Hamburg Süd plans to expand its core service to/from South America

Financial year 2013: Despite a moderate increase of transport volume in liner services the Hamburg Süd shipping group had to face turnover losses of 3.9 per cent

Hamburg Süd will expand its activities in the core services to and from South America and expand its network where it makes sense. Based on a high owned share of modern ships and containers, the focus of corporate management will remain on continued improvement of all cost positions also in 2014, the Hamburg Süd shipping group announces in a press release about the 2013 financial year.

In this letter they emphasise that in spite of positive impulses from the soccer world championships, there was no sign of a sustained solution to Brazil’s economic issues. Growth in the Chinese economy will also be of decisive importance over the coming year.

Due to subdued market growth and operational problems in the vastly overstretched ports in Brazil, Hamburg Süd and its Brazilian subsidiary Aliança were only able to increase transport volume in liner services by 1 per cent year-on-year to around 3.3 million TEU. With freight rates falling slightly and devaluation of the most important earnings currency (US dollar) by around 4 per cent as against the euro, total revenues of the business field shipping fell by 3.9 per cent to €5.3 billion.

The number of staff employed by the shipping group was almost the same as last year at 4,491 employees (previous year: 4,512), of which 686 were at sea. Including those seafarers employed by third-party companies (but excluding trainees), the number of staff employed by Hamburg Süd and its subsidiaries was 5,159.

Despite the unsatisfactory business environment, investments totalling EUR 450 million were considerably above the level of the previous year (EUR 247 million). These investments mainly comprise instalments and final payments for twelve 9,000/9,600 TEU ships and four smaller 3,800 TEU newbuilds.

As at 31 December 2013, the Hamburg Süd fleet comprised a total of 154 ships, 45 of which were owned by the group. Of these, 103 ships were employed in liner services, and 51 chartered-in ships were employed in tramp operations (bulkers, product tankers). The total number of containers remained virtually unchanged year-on-year at around 458,000.

www.hamburgsud.com/group/en/corporatehome/index.html

Quelle: LogEastics
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