Intermodal segment

In the highly competitive market for container traffic in the hinterland of major seaports, HHLA’s transport companies posted a moderate decline in volumes in the first half of 2023. Container transport decreased by a total of 3.7 % to 819 thousand standard containers (TEU) (previous year: 851 thousand TEU).

Rail transport fell year-on-year by 2.5 % to 691 thousand TEU (previous year: 709 thousand TEU). All the main routes were affected by the decrease, with the northern German seaports and Polish traffic hit particularly hard. Only Rotterdam traffic managed a slight increase. There was a significant decrease in road transport of 9.9 % to 128 thousand TEU (previous year: 142 thousand TEU).

With a year-on-year increase of 11.1 % to € 313.0 million (previous year: € 281.6 million), the development of revenue contrasted sharply with that of transport volumes. This was due to the rise in transport revenue in the previous year, which was adjusted to the increased costs for the purchase of services, in particular energy costs, at a later point in time.

The operating result (EBIT) amounted to € 41.1 million in the reporting period (previous year: € 42.8 million) and thus decreased by 3.9 %. The EBIT margin fell by 2.1 percentage points to 13.1 % (previous year: 15.2 %). The main reason for the downward EBIT trend was the decrease in transport volumes. The previous year’s result had been adversely affected by storm damage in February and disruptions to international supply chains.