Intermodal Segment

In the first nine months of 2016, HHLA’s transport companies achieved significant growth in the highly competitive market for container traffic in the hinterland of major seaports. Transport volumes rose by 5.9 % to 1,055 thousand standard containers (TEU), compared with 996 thousand TEU in the previous year. The trend was driven by growth in rail transportation, which again increased significantly year-on-year by 7.3 % to 818 thousand TEU (previous year: 762 thousand TEU). In a difficult market environment, road transport also made good progress with year-on-year growth of 1.3 % to 237 thousand TEU (previous year: 234 thousand TEU).

With an increase of 6.1 % to € 289.5 million (previous year: € 272.8 million), revenue performed slightly better than transport volumes. This positive trend was partly due to changes in the route mix, as rail's share of HHLA’s total intermodal transportation rose from 76.5 % to 77.5 %.

The operating result (EBIT) rose year-on-year to € 50.0 million (previous year: € 44.0 million) and significantly outperformed volume and revenue growth. This was primarily attributable to the higher volumes. Better utilisation of trains and an improved mix of import and export volumes compared to last year also had a positive effect on segment earnings. In a year-on-year comparison, it must be taken into account that the third quarter of 2015 contained positive one-off effects in the amount of € 2.5 million from the sale of a property in Poland.