HHLA is continuing to expand its intermodal network

Russian crisis impacts on container segment; throughout at the terminals down by 10 per cent on the previous year

Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) increased its operating result (EBIT) by 1.5 percent to EUR 82.6 million. Revenue fell by 1.8 percent to EUR  585.1 million. Container transport of the intermodal companies grew by 3.2 percent compared to the first half of the previous year, coming in at 654,000 TEU. Container throughput at the terminals in Hamburg and Odessa was down by 10.0 percent at 3.4 million TEU.

“Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG continues to face a challenging operating environment. China’s economic growth is slowing down, while Russia and Ukraine remain mired in an economic crisis. We nevertheless succeeded in increasing the Group’s operating result slightly. The Intermodal segment remains HHLA’s strongest growth driver. The investments we have made in procuring our own locomotives, wagons and hinterland terminals are now taking full effect and significantly increasing our value added. We were able to more than double the Intermodal segment’s operating result (EBIT). By contrast, the Container segment charted a negative trend in the reporting period,” says Klaus-Dieter Peters, Chairman of HHLA’s Executive Board.

The encouraging volume trend in container transport was driven by HHLA’s two rail companies, Metrans and Polzug. Revenue grew at a faster rate than volumes, gaining 6.3 percent to come in at EUR 180.8 million. This growth was largely attributable to price adjustments for individual products and to a rise in the average distance per transported unit. At EUR 26.8 million, the segment’s operating result doubled compared to the first six months of the previous year. Higher value added and an improvement in the combination of import and export volumes, which lead to a better utilisation of trains, were responsible for this strong increase in earnings. HHLA is continuing to expand its intermodal network and invest in new terminals and its own rolling stock.

As before, the lower throughput at the container terminals in Hamburg stemmed first and foremost from the reduction in feeder traffic with the Baltic Sea ports. In addition to the re-routing ordered by individual shipping companies, this is primarily due to the decrease in traffic to and from Russia, which fell almost 40 percent compared to the previous year. As every feeder container loss generally also means one less overseas container, the throughput for ocean-going vessels also fell markedly. At the Hamburg terminals rail container handling was the only area to chart a further slight increase in throughput. In Ukraine, the HHLA Container Terminal Odessa managed to reduce the impact of market shrinkage by gaining market share.

Revenue in the Container segment fell by 6.0 percent and totalled EUR 351.9 million. The operating result (EBIT) was down 27.3 percent at EUR 57.5 million due to lower volumes, a slight rise in personnel expenses and higher maintenance costs.
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source: oevz.com