Intermodal segment

In the highly competitive market for container traffic in the hinterland of major seaports, HHLA’s transport companies recorded a slight increase in volumes in the first nine months of 2022. Container transport increased in total by 0.9 % to 1,266 thousand standard containers (TEU) (previous year: 1,254 thousand TEU).

Rail transport increased by 3.3 % year-on-year to 1,054 thousand TEU (previous year: 1,021 thousand TEU). In addition to moderate growth for traffic with the North German seaports, a strong increase in Polish traffic and a significant rise in the German-speaking market contributed to this development. Transport with the Adriatic seaports, however, was slightly down on last year.

Following the recovery in the second half of 2021, road transport fell significantly in the first nine months of 2022. Transport volumes decreased year-on-year by 9.4 % to 211 thousand TEU (previous year: 233 thousand TEU).

With a year-on-year increase of 12.6 % to € 431.4 million (previous year: € 383.2 million), revenue growth was much stronger than the increase in transport volumes. This was due to the further increase in the rail share of HHLA’s total intermodal transport volumes from 81.4 % to 83.3 %, as well as temporary surcharges for rail transport that were required in order to partially offset the spike in energy prices.

The operating result (EBIT) amounted to € 64.0 million in the reporting period (previous year: € 79.5 million), thus decreasing by 19.5 %. The EBIT margin fell by 6.0 percentage points to 14.8 % (previous year: 20.8 %). The decline in EBIT was primarily the result of operational interruptions due to ongoing disruptions to supply chains and the strong rise in energy prices, which could only be passed on to the market after some delay. There was also a higher subsidy for route prices of approximately € 11 million granted retroactively in the third quarter of the previous year.