Container segment

During the first quarter of 2019, the volume development at HHLA’s container terminals increased slightly by 2.2 % to 1,865 thousand standard containers (TEU) (previous year: 1,824 thousand TEU).

The three Hamburg container terminals showed a slight downward trend with a year-on-year decrease in throughput volume of 1.3 % to 1,722 thousand TEU (previous year: 1,744 thousand TEU). This was due to the changes of services (addition of several services to North America, disposal of a Far East service). Feeder traffic developed very heterogeneously in the various Baltic region routes but stagnated overall at the prior-year level. The proportion of seaborne handling by feeders increased slightly by 0.4 percentage points to 23.5 % (previous year: 23.1 %).

Throughput at the international container terminals in Odessa and Tallinn amounted to 143 thousand TEU in the reporting period (previous year: 81 thousand TEU). However, the prior-year figures are only comparable to a limited extent, as the container terminal in Tallinn was incorporated into HHLA’s consolidated group at the end of the second quarter of 2018.

Revenue was increased year-on-year by 4.8 % to € 200.9 million in the first three months (previous year: € 191.7 million). The average revenue per container handled at the quayside rose by 2.5 % year-on-year. This was caused by a temporary increase in storage fees and a further rise in the rail share.

EBIT costs were influenced by ship delays and the costs of HHLA TK Estonia, consolidated since the end of the second quarter of 2018 and thus not included in the prior-year figures. The initial application of IFRS 16 led to a slight improvement. EBIT costs rose overall by 2.6 %.

The operating result (EBIT) increased by € 5.1 million or 15.6 % year-on-year to € 37.8 million (previous year: € 32.7 million). Of this increase, € 2.6 million is attributable to the application of IFRS 16. The EBIT margin rose by 1.7 percentage points to 18.8 %.