Business partners and customers

In its relationships with business partners, HHLA strives for integrity, fairness, responsibility and sustainability. To minimise the risks that may occur at the start of and during business relationships, HHLA uses a Group-wide business partner screening system. The system facilitates the recurring risk-based analysis and assessment of business relationships and possible measures to reduce risks. Risk and opportunity management

Customer structure

The customer base in the Container segment consists mainly of shipping companies, rail companies and freight forwarders. Globally operating container shipping companies account for the largest share of revenue. In ship handling, HHLA’s container terminals work together with shipping companies on a generally neutral basis (multi-user principle) and offer a wide range of high-quality services. In the reporting year, HHLA’s customer base included all of the world’s top ten container shipping companies.

Investments in container terminals by shipping companies are widespread in the industry and standard practice. They aim to tie cargo volumes to the port over the long term, to optimise terminal capacity and to strengthen supply chains.

Shipping companies hold non-controlling interests in three HHLA terminals. The shipping company Hapag-Lloyd holds a 25.1 % stake in HHLA Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA). COSCO SHIPPING Ports Limited (CSP) has held a 24.9 % stake in HHLA Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT) since 2023. Meanwhile, the Grimaldi Group holds a 49 % stake in the multifunctional terminal Unikai, which is attributed to the Logistics segment.

Since November 2024, the MSC Group has held a stake in HHLA via Port of Hamburg Beteiligungsgesellschaft SE. The partnership between the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and MSC is based on an investor agreement aimed at ensuring the mutually beneficial strategic development of HHLA. In the course of 2025, the MSC liner services calling at Hamburg were transferred to the HHLA container terminals and will be regularly processed there from now on. The neutrality of HHLA’s business model continues to be safeguarded by means of a business combination agreement, which ensures the equal treatment of all customers and continues to be put into practice in day-to-day operations.

Capacity breakdown by shipping line alliance

Far East–Europe as of 31.12.2025

In the Container segment, shipping companies partially dissolved their alliances in the first quarter of 2025, resulting in new groupings. There are still three major alliances and one shipping company with its own services in the East-West shipping market.

While the shipping companies Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd will be working together in future and operating jointly as the Gemini Cooperation, the remaining members of THE Alliance – ONE, HMM and Yang Ming – form the new Premier Alliance. Both partnerships launched operations in February 2025. MSC intends to operate its own network. However, an agreement was signed with the Premier Alliance regarding the exchange of slots for selected services, which also came into effect with the launch of the new network. Only the OCEAN Alliance remains unchanged. In February 2024, it extended its contract, which originally ran until 2027, ahead of schedule by a further five years until 2032.

Shipping companies have a long history of joining forces to create alliances. HHLA is therefore well equipped to deal with such structural changes and will continue to handle shipments from all three alliances, as well as MSC, at its container terminals.

New ship orders in the 2025 financial year remained up on those of previous years. By the end of December 2025, more than 620 ships with a total capacity of approximately 4.8 million TEU had been ordered. The number of new orders was lower overall in 2024 – over 400 ships with a capacity of 4.7 million TEU. In the past six months, numerous smaller vessels with a capacity of under 3,000 TEU and units with over 10,000 TEU have been ordered.

Shipping companies and forwarders are also the main customers in the Intermodal segment. As one of the leading providers of intermodal services, HHLA’s rail subsidiary METRANS and Roland Spedition assume a neutral role in the intermodal market, which is characterised by an established number of public and private providers.

The services provided in the Logistics segment are aimed at various customer groups, ranging from steel companies and power plants (in the field of bulk cargo handling) to international operators of ports and other logistics centres (in the field of port consulting).

The Real Estate segment lets its office space and commercial premises to German and international clients from a variety of sectors: from logistics and trading companies to media, consulting and advertising agencies, fashion labels, hotels and restaurants, and companies in the creative sector.

Sales activities

As far as possible, all of HHLA’s sales activities follow the strategic approach of vertical integration, i.e. offering comprehensive transport and logistics services from a single source. This strategic approach is pursued by means of intensive, cross-segment dialogue between the sales organisations, joint customer visits and by attending events in the hinterland of seaports.

Revenue distribution by customer

at the Hamburg container terminals 2025

Sales activities in the Container segment are organised by means of key account management. The revenue share attributable to HHLA’s five most important customers at its Hamburg container terminals changed in the 2025 financial year to 66.0 % (previous year: 78.4 %). The revenue share attributable to the ten most important customers at the Hamburg terminals remained practically unchanged in 2025 at 98.4 % (previous year: 98.8 %). HHLA has maintained commercial relationships with the majority of its most important customers for well over two decades. HHLA concludes multi-year framework contracts with its shipping customers that set out both the scope and the remuneration of services. As the usage volume for these services is not fixed, there is no order backlog in the traditional sense for the specific services provided by HHLA.

In the Intermodal and Logistics segments, sales activities are generally managed locally by the individual companies. As a rule, no framework agreements are concluded regarding transport services; instead, the relevant transport or service requirements are provided to order.

The sales team of the Real Estate segment offers potential clients and tenants a wide range of services for properties in its two main districts – Hamburg’s Speicherstadt historical warehouse district and the northern banks of the river Elbe/fish market area – as well as for logistics properties in the Port of Hamburg.