Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) increased its group revenue by 7.7 per cent to €1.58 million ($1.68 million) in the 2022 financial year according to preliminary unaudited figures.
Container throughput saw a decrease in volumes, which were down by 7.9 per cent to 6.39 million TEU from 6.94 million TEU in 2021.
Despite operational disruptions regarding arrivals to German seaport terminals, the total transport volume remained constant at 1.69 million TEU in 2022, compared to 1.69 million TEU in 2021.
The Hamburg container terminals reported a year-on-year decrease of 4.1 per cent.
Angela Titzrath, Chairwoman of the Executive Board at HHLA, said: “The 2022 financial year was dominated by the impacts of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and disruptions to the global supply chain.
“In these challenging times, HHLA once again proved its efficiency and resilience and achieved a positive result. The environment is likely to remain volatile and we are already implementing measures to ensure we remain efficient and viable,” said Titzrath.
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In the listed Port Logistics subgroup, revenue increased by 7.4 per cent to €1.54 million ($1.64 million) from €1.43 million ($1.53 million) in 2021.
Ongoing disruptions to global supply chains led to longer container dwell times at HHLA’s terminals in Hamburg as well as in Tallinn and Trieste.
This led to HHLA charging higher storage fees which had a positive effect on the development of HHLA’s revenue and earnings in the financial year.
Lower handling volumes, partly due to the effects of the Russian invasion on the terminal in Odessa, had a negative impact on earnings.
In early December 2022, German Food Bridge, HHLA, and Unilever joined forces to ship food to Odessa.
The Real Estate subgroup recorded a 15.9 per cent increase in revenue in the 2022 financial year, bringing it to €44 million ($46.8 million) from €38 million ($40.4 million) in 2021.
Within the context of ongoing geopolitical tensions, HHLA is likely to face operational challenges for 2023 due to continued volatility and an economic slowdown.
During the first quarter of 2023, the company expects to see significant drops in volumes due to the economic situation and expects the dwell times of containers to normalise again.
From the second quarter of 2023, the situation is expected to improve with a corresponding increase in volumes.
This financial report comes a month after HHLA announced that its innovation unit, HHLA Next, is investing in automated logistics start-up FERNRIDE.
