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Container throughput up 6.8% to 3.8 million TEU during first six months of 2013
Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) saw container throughput at its container terminals jump nearly seven percent to 3.8 million TEU during the first half of the year.
With a rise of 6.8 percent in container volumes January through June, there was further good news for the German Port of Hamburg’s largest stevedore upon the release of its interim figures with its newly aligned intermodal segment also reporting a significant 21.8 percent rise in box traffic after handling 581,000 TEU during the six month period.
“Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG has achieved significant volume growth in both container throughput and container transport, and has therefore extended its market position,” said HHLA executive board chairman, Klaus-Dieter Peters.
Group revenues were also up 1.6 percent to €575.2 million, however, along with the company’s operating result (EBIT), it failed to mirror the company’s growth in volumes due to continuing costs relating to modernisation and restructuring as well as the expenses associated with the recent flooding in the area of key hinterland connections.
“The fact that the revenue and earnings trend hasn’t been able to fully match the increase in transport volumes can be largely attributed to this difficult business environment,” added Peters.
“However, the volume growth confirms our strategy of combining a leading position in terms of the performance and technology of our terminals with our highly productive hinterland systems.”
HHLA is therefore upholding its forecast for revenue and operating result for the 2013 financial year. HHLA expects group revenue of between €1.1 billion and €1.2 billion and an operating result in a range of € 155 million to € 175 million, however, without major progress in the restructuring processes the result is expected to be at the low half of this range. Slight, single-digit growth in container throughput is expected for 2013 as a whole.
