Total container throughput for Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) decreased by around 8% in 2022 falling to 6,396,000 TEUs.
HHLA noted that its Hamburg box terminals reported a year-on-year decrease of 4.1%.
Additionally, according to HHLA’s report, despite operational disruptions regarding vessel arrivals at German seaport terminals, the total transport volume remained relatively steady at 1,694,000 TEUs.
On the financial side of the report, HHLA achieved earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of US$234 million, exceeding the expected range of approximately US$186 – US$223 million. Furthermore, the company’s revenues increased by 7.7% to around US$1.6 billion.
Angela Titzrath, chairwoman of the executive board at HHLA, commented, “The 2022 financial year was dominated by the impacts of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and disruptions to the global supply chain. In these challenging times, HHLA once again proved its efficiency and resilience and achieved a positive result.”
HHLA’s business operations are likely to face operational challenges during the current financial year due to continued volatility and an economic slow-down, according to the company’s forecast for 2023.
During the first quarter of the year, HHLA expects to see cargo volume drop due to the economic situation and expects the dwell times of containers to normalise again. From the second quarter of 2023, the situation is anticipated to improve with an increase in volumes.
“Due to the volatile environment, these assumptions are subject to considerable uncertainty,” pointed out HHLA.