Hapag H12024 group profit drops 75% on lower rates

Hapag-Lloyd reported a 75 percent decline in group profit at $791 million for the first half of 2024 on lower rates.

Revenue declined 12 percent to $9.5 billion as against $10.8 billion in H12023, says an official release.

"Hapag-Lloyd concluded the first half year of 2024 with a Group EBITDA of $2 billion, and the Group EBIT decreased to $0.9 billion. In view of the significantly changed market conditions following the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, these results are well below the previous year’s level but they are also above the initial expectations due to higher demand and rising spot rates in the second quarter of 2024."

In the Liner Shipping segment, the transport volumes increased by five percent to 6.1 million TEU (H1 2023: 5.8 million TEU). "Segment revenues fell by 14 percent to $9.3 billion, in particular due to a lower average freight rate of $1,391/TEU (H1 2023: 1,761 USD/TEU). The EBITDA decreased to $1.9 billion and the EBIT fell to $0.8 billion (EUR 0.8 billion)."

The Terminal & Infrastructure segment achieved a significant increase in sales and earnings in the first half of 2024, in particular due to the equity stakes acquired in the previous year, the release added. "The EBITDA rose to $71 million and the EBIT to $33 million. Since the segment was founded in the second half of 2023, the results for the first half of 2024 are only comparable with the prior-year figures to a limited extent."

Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO, Hapag-Lloyd says: "Even though we were unable to match the exceptionally good results of the prior year, we delivered a very good first half of 2024, thanks to strong demand and better spot rates. We have added several new ships and containers to our fleet. This has helped us to meet the additional capacity requirements resulting from the security situation in the Red Sea and the rerouting of ships around the Cape of Good Hope, thereby keeping supply chains intact. At the same time, we have made more progress in our efforts to decarbonise our fleet as well as in building up our terminal business under the Hanseatic Global Terminals brand. In the second half of the year, we will increasingly focus on continued growth and the high quality of our services."

Outlook
The Group EBITDA is expected to be in the range of $3.5-4.6 billion and the Group EBIT to be in the range of $1.3-2.4 billion for 2024. In view of the highly volatile development of freight rates and major geopolitical challenges, the forecast remains subject to a high degree of uncertainty, the release added.