The ongoing war in Ukraine, geopolitical tensions, inflation and rising interest rates put pressure on consumer and industrial demand and are continuing to hinder the global economic recovery in the aftermath of the pandemic, stated the company.

HHLA’s business performance in H1 2023 already reflected the difficult conditions in the market. The significant drop in volumes in H1 abated in the container segment thanks to a stronger Q3, but continued to be challenging for hinterland container transport.

In addition, shorter dwell times for containers handled at the Hamburg container terminals compared to the same period of the previous year resulted in reduced storage fees.

Revenue in the HHLA Group reduced by 7.1% to €1,090M (previous year: €1,172.7M). EBIT decreased by 52.8% to €75.6M (previous year: €160.1M). The EBIT margin amounted to 6.9% (previous year: 13.7%). Profit after tax and minority interests came to €11.9M (previous year: €69.8M). 

Angela Titzrath, CEO, said: “The subdued economic situation continues to impact HHLA’s business activities as an international logistics company. The resulting challenging macroeconomic framework conditions are therefore also reflected in the company’s results after the third quarter. However, it is all the more important to maintain our strategic course at times of multiple crises.

“Even in unsettled times, we are therefore working consistently on strengthening the company’s competitiveness and future viability and driving our sustainability efforts forward. As a result, Container Terminal Altenwerder in Hamburg was again certified as climate-neutral in the third quarter and the HHLA Pure network was further expanded by our rail subsidiary Metrans to ensure climate-friendly container transport.”

To the end of September, container throughput at HHLA’s container terminals decreased year-on-year by 8.5% to 4.455M TEU (previous year: 4,869M TEU). At 4,286M TEU, throughput volume at the Hamburg container terminals was down 6.9% on the same period last year (previous year: 4,605M TEU).

The main driver of this development was the decline in volumes of the Far East shipping region – China in particular. The positive momentum from North American cargo volumes and the throughput volumes of the Middle East were unable to offset this trend.

Feeder traffic volumes were also strongly down on the previous year. In addition to the reduction in Swedish and Polish traffic, volumes from Russia were also absent due to the sanctions. The proportion of seaborne handling by feeders amounted to 18.4% (previous year: 20.5%).

In the hinterland segment, HHLA’s container transport decreased by 3.4% to 1,222M TEU, with rail transport (Metrans) down year-on-year by 1.6% to 1,037M TEU. All the main routes were affected by the decrease, in particular Polish traffic. Road transport was down by 12.4% to 185,000 TEU.

According to the figures from Hafen Hamburg, container handling in the port in Q3 grew by 2.4% to 2M TEU in comparison with the same period in the previous year. “This result is albeit only a part of the total picture, but shows that container throughput in the Port of Hamburg is going through a period of recovery,” stated Axel Mattern, CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing – HHM. “With a view to the North Range ports, we shall be the only one showing a positive result for container handling in the third quarter. This shows that we are able to increase our market share.” 

Taking Q1-Q3 as a whole, in comparison with the first nine months of 2022 the port’s container traffic was down by 7.4% to 5.84M TEU. However, In H1 2023, traffic was down by 11.7% year-on-year, so things seem to be looking up.

Hafen Hamburg noted that US trade reached a quarterly high in Q3, at 171,000 TEU, 9.4% up on Q3 2022. Through Q1-Q3 this year, US trade came to 483,000 TEU.