The European terminal operator, Eurogate has increased net operating profit by 13.4% to US$83.5 million from its 2015 figures of US$73.7 million, despite turbulent market conditions.
Container handling volumes at German Eurogate locations, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg handling grew to 8.2 million TEU in 2015 – 1.5% more than 2014.
Read: Volumes Climb at Eurogate’s German Terminals
The total volume of containers handled across the European group was 2% below 2015, at 14.5 million TEU.
Eurogate group revenue was up by 4.5% and stood at US$671.8 million compared to 2015 figures at US$643 million.
Operating profit in 2015 was US$86.9 million but grew by 19% to US$ 103.5 million.
Emanuel Schiffer, Chairman of the Eurogate Group Management Board, said: “Eurogate has achieved good operating results that will enable us in the coming years to make the group fit for the challenges of the future.
“However, despite this positive result we cannot hide the fact that the market conditions in our industry have become more difficult. The global economy has lost its momentum.
“Consequently, the volume of goods being traded internationally is down, which leads among other things to a general slowdown in global container handling at the seaports.
“We are currently confronted by a mature market characterised by highly intense competition. The shipping lines are responding to this with ever larger container ships with transport capacities of [more than] 18,000 TEU.
“For us as terminal operators the challenges lie in coping with the resulting peak handling periods. We need to be able to offer our customers high levels of productivity to ensure that deploying ULCVs delivers the results our customers are looking for.”
In other news, Euronav NV has recently published its annual report for the year 2015, in which the company saw more than US$350 million in net profit and more than US$850 million in revenue for the year.
Euronav currently operates a fleet of 55 crude tanker vessels, with 2,700 seafarers working across its portfolio of ships.
