Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) revenue rose by 9.9 percent to € 779.5 million (the previous year: € 709.2 million). HHLA’s economic performance during the first half of 2022 was largely in line with the forecast, which outlined the possible effects of the Russian invasion based on the information available at the time.
According to Angela Titzrath, the Chairwoman of HHLA’s Executive Board, logistics have been unstable for two years, mainly due to the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, weather conditions, construction works, and finally the war in Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions against Russia.
“HHLA may have successfully completed the first half of 2022, but the disruptions to supply chains still continue to pose major operational challenges for us. It is not currently clear when this situation will return to normality or what consequences the global crisis will have for the economy and for society. HHLA is doing everything it can to contribute to the reliable supply of businesses and consumers. We are continuing to focus on the implementation of our strategy, which is based on growth and sustainability – especially in these uncertain times,” commented Angela Titzrath.
In concrete numbers, in the intermodal segment container transport increased overall by 2.2 percent to 851 thousand TEU (previous year: 832 thousand TEU). Rail transport rose by 4.6 percent year-on-year to 709 thousand TEU (previous year: 678 thousand TEU).
In addition to moderate growth for traffic with the North German seaports, a strong increase in Polish traffic and in the German-speaking market contributed to this development. Road transport, on the other hand, saw a significant decrease in the first half of 2022. In a persistently challenging market environment, transport volumes decreased by 8.2 percent to 142 thousand TEU (previous year: 155 thousand TEU).
With year-on-year growth of 11.4 percent to € 281.6 million (the previous year: € 252.9 million), revenue growth was stronger than the increase in transport volumes. Some reasons for this were the further increase in the rail share of HHLA’s total intermodal transportation from 81.4 percent to 83.3 percent and temporary surcharges that were required in order to partially offset the spike in energy prices.
The operating result (EBIT) decreased by 7.1 percent to € 42.8 million (previous year: € 46.0 million). The EBIT margin fell by 3.0 percentage points to 15.2 percent (previous year: 18.2 percent). The weak EBIT performance was primarily due to operational interruptions due to storm damage, ongoing disruptions to supply chains, and the sudden spike in energy prices, which could only be passed on to the market after some delay.
The operating result EBIT in the Intermodal segment is expected to remain at the previous year's level (previously: slight increase) due to continued supply chain disruptions and their impact on operational processes. In order to further increase productivity and capacity in the Container and Intermodal segments, investments at the Group level are expected to remain between € 300 million and € 350 million in 2022.
