Hamburg Port Marks Growth Despite Ukraine Crisis

Germany’s Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) increased its revenue by 6 percent to EUR 906.7 million (USD 1.13bn) in the first nine months of 2014.

Growth in the operating result (EBIT) was at 10.9 percent. The company increased its operating result to EUR 131.3 million (USD 163.7m) in the first three quarters.

The group says that it further expanded its position in the container transport market and increased its hinterland transport volume by over 10 percent.

HHLA also experienced further growth in the container throughput. The pace of growth was restricted, however, by a decrease in feeder traffic at HHLA’s Hamburg terminals which stemmed partly from a significant reduction in traffic with Russia. The economic impact of the conflict in Ukraine also affected the rate of throughput growth.

Revenue and the operating results outperformed the volume growth at HHLA. Amongst other things, this was attributable to operational improvements, moves to optimise the cost of coping with peak loads, and a noticeable increase in the proportion of higher-revenue and higher-margin overseas traffic in the handling mix.

HHLA’s Hamburg terminals increased their throughput by 1.8 percent in the first nine months despite a drop of around 5 percent in feeder traffic, especially with Russia. This was primarily due to further marked growth of 8.5 percent in Far East traffic. Together with the fall in container throughput in Odessa due to the conflict in Ukraine, this meant that container throughput at all the HHLA terminals (Hamburg and Odessa) increased by 0.3 percent in total.

Based on business developments to date, HHLA still expects the throughput volume for 2014 to be up marginally on the previous year’s figure. Significant growth in container transport is still anticipated. With this in mind, HHLA assumes its annual revenue to exceed the previous year’s figure and expects that the operating results will be at the upper end of the advised range of EUR 138 million to EUR 158 million (USD 172 -197m).

“Our strategy of expanding capacity in line with demand, boosting mega-ship handling efficiency and driving growth in our hinterland transport services has been validated once again,” said Klaus-Dieter Peters, Chairman of HHLA’s Executive Board.

Press Release; Image: HHLA