HHLA Group restructures Lübeck operations
MBO of combisped and cancellation of Lübeck rail service The HHLA port logistics group (Hamburg) is responding to the steep downturn in the container trades in the Baltic region with a package of measures. The new strategy comprises intensified cooperation with Lübecker Hafen-Gesellschaft (LHG), a management buy-out of HHLA’s combisped subsidiary, and a planned sale of Container Terminal Lübeck(CTL). In the light of the present situation on volumes, rail services between Hamburg and Container Terminal Lübeck (CTL) are to be discontinued. The management buy-out of combisped by Thomas Dreyer, its present managing director, will be effected in the third quarter of 2009. The company will continue to run its freight forwarding business, including the trucking services to and from Hamburg, for its existing customer base. Moreover, combisped and HHLA’s CTD container forwarding company are examining the option of providing a joint range of road transport services. According to the HHLA Group, the dramatic falls in container traffic in the Baltic region were the reason why the group decided to restructure the Lübeck traffic. On some specific trades, such as those with Russia, decrease of traffic amounted to up to 50 per cent in the early months of 2009. Along with a steep decline in feeder services through the Kiel Canal, the fast route from Hamburg via the landbridge to Lübeck was affected. Here HHLA’s subsidiary combisped organises feeder services with Finnish ports and St. Petersburg via its Container Terminal Lübeck (CTL). After an already unsatisfactory trend in 2008, volumes collapsed by 70 percent to about 8,000 standard containers (TEU) in the first five months of 2009. The combisped and CTL companies together accounted for around 1.3 percent of total HHLA Group revenues in 2008, making a negative contribution to its result. Quelle: Österreichische Verkehrszeitung |