Germany: Bright Future for HHLA

Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) increased its container throughput in the first nine months of 2012 by 1.9 % to 5.4 million standard containers.

Revenue fell by 7.2 percent to € 847.2 million due to the restructuring of the Intermodal segment and changes in consolidation methods. The operating result (EBIT) declined by 12.6 % to € 143.8 million. Profit after tax and minority interests was down by 2.1 % compared to the previous year at € 64.0 million.

“As we expected, the economic environment continued to deteriorate over the course of the third quarter of 2012. On the basis of our performance to date we are nevertheless able to confirm our forecast for the full year 2012,” said Klaus-Dieter Peters, Chairman of the HHLA Executive Board. “We continue to expect container throughput on par with last year and on this basis are aiming for revenue in the region of € 1.1 billion and an operating result in the range of € 170 million to € 190 million.”

Terminal modernisation reinforces competitiveness

In the first nine months of 2012, HHLA took numerous steps to increase its productivity in handling the growing number of mega-ships at the Port of Hamburg. This strengthens the competitiveness of the Port of Hamburg despite the further delay to the dredging of the navi-gation channel of the river Elbe. The new measures include innovative processes such as the simultaneous transport of two containers at the Tollerort terminal and combined loading and discharching to avoid extra moves at the Container Terminal Altenwerder.

At Burchard-kai, HHLA’s largest container terminal, elements of the new operating system continued to be cross-linked and integrated. Burchardkai is thereby making use of the experience gained at the highly automated terminal in Altenwerder. Its terminal processes are managed by a control centre with partially automated storage blocks and modern tandem gantry cranes, enabling a new dimension of performance.

[mappress]

Press Release, November 13, 2012