Intermodal segment

In the highly competitive market for container traffic in the hinterland of major seaports, HHLA’s transport companies recorded a slight increase in volumes in the first six months of 2022. Container transport increased in total by 2.2 % to 851 thousand TEU (previous year: 832 thousand TEU).

Rail transport rose significantly by 4.6 % year-on-year to 709 thousand TEU (previous year: 678 thousand TEU). In addition to moderate growth for traffic with the North German seaports, a strong increase in Polish traffic and in the German-speaking market contributed to this development. Transport with the Adriatic seaports, however, was at a similar level to last year.

Following the recovery in the second half of 2021, road transport fell significantly in the first half of 2022. In a persistently challenging market environment, transport volumes decreased year-on-year by 8.2 % to 142 thousand TEU (previous year: 155 thousand TEU).

With a year-on-year increase of 11.4 % to € 281.6 million (previous year: € 252.9 million), revenue growth was stronger than the increase in transport volumes. This was due to the further increase in the rail share of HHLA’s total intermodal transportation from 81.4 % to 83.3 % as well as temporary surcharges that were required in order to partially offset the spike in energy prices.

The operating result (EBIT) amounted to € 42.8 million in the reporting period (previous year: € 46.0 million), thus decreasing by 7.1 %. The EBIT margin fell by 3.0 percentage points to 15.2 % (previous year: 18.2 %). The decrease in EBIT was mainly due to operational interruptions due to storm damage, ongoing disruptions to supply chains and the strong rise in energy prices, which could only be passed on to the market after some delay.