Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) has announced strong revenue and earnings growth in the first nine months of 2024.
In the Container segment, volumes at HHLA terminals rose by 0.9% to 4,496,000 TEUs, while Hamburg terminals maintained steady throughput, up slightly by 0.2% year-on-year.
Although the Far East and Middle East volumes declined, HHLA recorded strong growth in the North and South American regions, particularly in the US, while European port traffic also grew, with notable increases from Lithuania, Germany, Sweden, and Poland, despite declines in Finnish and Danish cargo. Feeder traffic’s share of seaborne handling rose to 19.%, up from 18.4% last year.
HHLA’s international container terminals experienced significant growth, with handling volumes increasing 20.2% to 203,000 TEUs, driven by strong performance at HHLA TK Estonia and the resumption of operations at Container Terminal Odessa in the third quarter of 2024. Overall, HHLA’s Container segment revenue increased by 8.2% to around US$610 million, mainly due to longer container dwell times at Hamburg, which boosted storage fee revenue. Segment EBIT surged by 87.1% to about US$53.9 million, with the EBIT margin rising by 3.7% points to 8.8%.
The Intermodal segment recorded a strong increase in volumes, with container transport rising by 8.1% to 1,321,000 TEUs. Rail transport saw a 10.2% increase to 1,144,000 TEUs, bolstered by volume growth in German-speaking regions, offsetting declines in Adriatic and Polish traffic.
This positive trend was further supported by HHLA’s acquisition of a majority stake in Roland Spedition GmbH.
Road transport, however, decreased by 4.1% to 178,000 TEUs.
Regarding the Group results, HHLA’s revenue rose by 8.5% to approximately US$1.2 billion and operating result (EBIT) climbed by 23.2% to around US$98.4 million, resulting in an EBIT margin of 7.9%, up from 6.9% in the prior year. Consolidated profit after minority interests reached approximately US$24.4 million, a significant increase from US$12.6 million in 2023.
Angela Titzrath, CEO of HHLA, commented, “Global economic development and trade continued to be influenced by various crises and risk factors during the first nine months of 2024. Despite the ongoing challenges, HHLA posted positive growth in revenue and earnings in the first nine months. In particular, the expansion of sustainable and connected logistics solutions throughout Europe had an impact on this, resulting in significant increases in transport volumes in the Intermodal segment for our Metrans and Roland Spedition subsidiaries.”
