HHLA defies crises and improves operating result significantly

Container Handling at HHLA Container Terminal Altenwerder 

Despite the economic crises in Ukraine and Russia and a slowdown in the growth of the global economy and global trade, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) increased its revenue and operating result in the
2014 financial year. The company achieved an operating result of € 169 million – up 10 percent on the previous year. Preliminary figures show that HHLA generated revenue of approximately € 1.2 billion, representing a rise of more than 5 percent on 2013. According to preliminary unaudited figures, HHLA increased its Group revenue in the 2014 financial year to around € 1.2 billion (previous year: € 1.14 billion) and reported an operating result (EBIT) of € 169 million (previous year: € 154 million).

The Port Logistics subgroup – the company’s listed core business operations – generated revenue of approximately € 1.17 billion (previous year: € 1.11 billion) and an operating result (EBIT) of around € 155 million (previous year: € 140 million). HHLA will publish its complete set of final results for the 2014 financial year as well as a guidance for 2015 on 30 March 2015. “Our vertical Group strategy proved to be so robust in 2014 that we were still able to generate above-average results even in a difficult operating environment, which included a further delay in the dredging of the river Elbe and the regional crises in Russia and Ukraine,” says the Chairman of HHLA’s Executive Board, Klaus-Dieter Peters.

Container throughput at the three container terminals in Hamburg increased by a moderate 1.2 percent on the previous year to 7.2 million standard containers (TEU), impacted by lower feeder traffic with Russia in the second half of 2014. This rise was not enough to fully offset the drop in throughput at the Container Terminal Odessa in the Ukraine caused by the crisis in Ukraine. Throughput there fell by nearly 30 percent to almost 0.3 million TEU.

Total container throughput remained on previous year’s level, at approximately 7.5 million TEU. In contrast, HHLA’s Intermodal companies’ transport volume in European seaport-hinterland traffic increased significantly by 9.4 percent to 1.3 million TEU. The strategy of using the companies’ own inland terminals in the European hinterland and own rolling stock to achieve a high level of added value mainly supported this strong growth.