Despite ongoing disruptions to global supply chains, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) recorded a positive trend in revenue and earnings in the first nine months of the year. The company benefitted in particular from a further rise in storage fees in the Container segment resulting from much longer dwell times for containers at HHLA facilities, as well as from a further increase in the rail share of HHLA’s total intermodal transport volumes and temporary surcharges to partially offset the strong rise in energy prices. Revenue in the HHLA Group rose by 8.7 percent to € 1,172.7 million (previous year: € 1,078.9 million). The Group operating result (EBIT) decreased slightly, however, by 1.2 percent to € 160.1 million (previous year: € 162.1 million). The EBIT margin amounted to 13.7 percent (previous year: 15.0 percent). Profit after tax and minority interests came to € 69.8 million, down strongly on the previous year (previous year: € 79.4 million).
Angela Titzrath, Chairwoman of HHLA’s Executive Board: “The war in Ukraine, high energy prices, rising personnel and procurement expenses, disruption in global supply chains and growing recessionary tendencies also impact our business. Despite all this, HHLA achieved a positive result in the first nine months of 2022. As such, we are confident that we will be able to achieve our targets for the 2022 financial year. Thanks to the determined implementation of our strategy, which is focussed on growth and sustainability, we are able to strengthen the resilience of HHLA.”
Port Logistics subgroup: performance January to September 2022
The listed Port Logistics subgroup recorded an increase of 8.3 percent in revenue to € 1,145.8 million in the first nine months (previous year: € 1,057.5 million). The operating result (EBIT) decreased by 4.0 percent to € 145.3 million (previous year: € 151.3 million). At 12.7 percent, the EBIT margin remained below the previous year’s figure (previous year: 14.3 percent). Profit after tax and minority interests decreased by 16.1 percent to € 61.3 million (previous year: € 73.1 million). Earnings per share thus amounted to € 0.85 (previous year: € 1.02).
In the Container segment, the throughput volume at all of HHLA’s container terminals decreased overall by 5.7 percent to 4,869 thousand standard containers (TEU) (previous year: 5,165 thousand TEU). At 4,605 thousand TEU, throughput volume at the Hamburg container terminals was down 2.3 percent on the same period last year (previous year: 4,712 thousand TEU). This was mainly driven by limited handling capacity due to the high utilisation of storage capacity owing to the rise in dwell times for import and export containers at the Port of Hamburg. On the other hand, container throughput was also impacted by reduced cargo volumes from North America and, above all, Far East shipping regions – with the exception of China.
In terms of feeder traffic, the decline in volumes to and from Russia since March 2022 and a decrease in volumes to and from the UK was offset by the acquisition of two new feeder services and a significant rise in volumes to and from Poland and Scandinavia. In total, the proportion of seaborne handling accounted for by feeders grew slightly year-on-year to 20.5 percent (previous year: 20.0 percent).
The international container terminals reported a strong decline in throughput volume of 41.7 percent to 264 thousand TEU (previous year: 453 thousand TEU). This was due to the significant decline in cargo volumes at the terminal in Odessa after seaborne handling there was suspended by the authorities at the end of February following the Russian invasion. A strong increase in volume at the TK Estonia container terminal resulting from the increased use of the terminal as an alternative to Russian ports, along with additional throughput volumes for PLT Italy in Trieste, were not able to fully offset the decrease in Odessa as a result of the war.
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