Hapag-Lloyd revenues increase by 15% in H1 2019

Hapag-Lloyd

Hapag-Lloyd has reported H1 2019 results which state that it achieved EBIT of €389m in 2017, up from €91m in 2016.

Revenues increased by 15% to €6.2bn. The main reasons for this were the increased transport volumes, the average freight rates and the strengthening of the US dollar. The transport volume rose by 2% to 5.97m TEUs.

The average freight rate in the first half of 2019 was $1,071 per TEU, up $51 compared to the prior year period. In an ongoing difficult market environment, freight rates were down slightly by $16 per TEU in the second quarter of 2019 compared with the first quarter of 2019. Compared with the first half of 2018, increased freight rates particularly on the Atlantic, Transpacific, Far East, Intra-Asia, Latin America and EMAO trades, had a positive effect on the average freight rate in the reporting period and therefore on earnings. However, the freight rate decrease on the Middle East trade had the opposite effect.

Rolf Habben Jansen, Chief Executive Officer of Hapag-Lloyd said: “Thanks to higher transport volumes in our core trades, good cost control and slightly better freight rates, we can look back on a good first half year. This also allowed us to redeem additional debt through the early repayment of a senior note. Our outlook remains unchanged, even if we have to deal with more trade restrictions and see increasing geopolitical risk, which of course could impact growth. In the second half of the year, we will continue implementing our Strategy 2023.”

Source: Hapag-Lloyd