Intermodal Segment

In the first quarter of 2016, HHLA’s transport companies achieved slight growth in the highly competitive market for container traffic in the hinterland of major seaports. With growth of 2.4 %, the transport volume climbed to 341 thousand standard containers (TEU) compared with 333 thousand TEU in the same period of the previous year. In the reporting period, this trend was driven by an expansion in railway transportation. Building on the previous year’s good figures, there was a further increase of 4.8 % to 264 thousand TEU (previous year: 252 thousand TEU). Road transport, however, declined by 4.9 % to 77 thousand TEU (previous year: 81 thousand TEU) due to lower container volumes in the greater Hamburg area.

With growth of 1.0 % to € 92.6 million (previous year: € 91.7 million), revenue grew less dynamically than transport volumes. The main reasons for this were changes of the route mix, resulting in a fall in the average transportation distance, and a higher proportion of empty containers in the total transport volume.

Compared to the previous year, the operating result (EBIT) increased to € 16.3 million (previous year: € 12.7 million) and significantly outperformed volume and revenue growth. The expansion of the company’s own traction since the beginning of 2015 with the acquisition of additional locomotives had a positive effect on productivity rates and led to improved cost structures. Due to the change-over period in the first few months of the previous year, this had not yet taken full effect.