Intermodal segment

In the highly competitive market for container traffic in the hinterland of major seaports, HHLA’s transport companies recorded significantly lower volumes in the first quarter of 2020. Container transport decreased by 5.1 % to 378 thousand standard containers (TEU) (previous year: 398 thousand TEU). The decrease in road transport was much more marked than that of rail transport. Rail transport declined year-on-year by 3.3 % to 300 thousand TEU (previous year: 310 thousand TEU). The significant fall in maritime traffic from both the North German and Adriatic seaports was partially offset by strong growth in continental traffic. The downward trend of the previous quarters continued for road traffic. Largely due to weak growth in the Hamburg region and a persistently challenging market environment, road transport volumes fell by 11.4 % year-on-year to 78 thousand TEU (previous year: 88 thousand TEU).

The 5.8 % year-on-year decline in revenue to € 116.8 million (previous year: € 123.9 million) was therefore slightly stronger than the decrease in transport volume. Despite a slight increase in the rail share of HHLA’s total intermodal transportation from 77.9 % to 79.4 %, average revenue per TEU decreased as a result of the disproportionately strong decrease in freight flows with longer transport distances.

The operating result (EBIT) fell by 31.9 % to € 17.2 million in the reporting period (previous year: € 25.3 million). This marked decrease was primarily due to decreases in volume and revenue, as well as to increased fluctuations in import and export cargo with a resulting fall in capacity utilisation of rail systems.