Intermodal segment

In the highly competitive market for container traffic in the hinterland of major seaports, HHLA’s transport companies recorded a slight decrease in volumes in the first three months of 2026. Container transport declined by a total of 1.5 % to 489 thousand standard containers (TEU) (previous year: 496 thousand TEU).

Rail transport decreased year-on-year by 1.1 % to 424 thousand TEU (previous year: 428 thousand TEU). This slight drop in volume was largely due to decreased traffic with the North German and Adriatic seaports, as well as lower transport volumes in the German-speaking countries. There was also a decrease in road transport of 4.5 % to 65 thousand TEU (previous year: 68 thousand TEU). One major factor in this development were the adverse weather conditions at the beginning of the year.

With a year-on-year increase of 1.8 % to € 205.6 million (previous year: € 202.0 million), the development of revenue contrasted with that of transport volumes. This was due in particular to necessary price adjustments, as well as to rail’s share of total transport volumes, which rose by 0.4 percentage points to 86.7 % (previous year: 86.3 %).

The operating result (EBIT) amounted to € 20.1 million in the reporting period and was thus 0.5 % above the prior-year figure (previous year: € 20.0 million). The EBIT margin fell by 0.1 percentage points to 9.8 % (previous year: 9.9 %). The slight decrease in volumes was cushioned by the increase in average revenue due to price adjustments and the higher share of rail transport. As a result, the burden on earnings from adverse operational effects  – including weather-related additional costs at the beginning of the year, construction work on major transport conduits and high capacity utilisation at the North German seaports – could be largely offset.