Hapag-Lloyd, Germany's largest container shipping company, had to significantly feel the end of the Corona special boom last year.
The preliminary figures of the Hamburg traditional company, which were published on Tuesday, show a declining operating profit (Ebit) of 2.5 billion euros - one-seventh less than in the previous year 2022.
The reason for this lies, according to Hapag-Lloyd, primarily in the normalization of supply chains, which led to a decrease in freight rates of almost 48 percent to an average of $1500 per standard container (TEU).
The turnover of the world's fifth largest shipping company dropped by over 48 percent to 17.9 billion euros. During the pandemic, freight rates in container shipping had risen sharply due to limited transport capacities and fragile supply chains, resulting in extraordinary profits for the major shipping companies.
Hapag-Lloyd expects a similar transportation volume of 11.9 million TEUs (previous year: 11.8 million) for the current year, with the conflict in the Red Sea having a negative impact on the transportation volume towards the end of the year.
The diversion of ships around the Cape of Good Hope due to attacks by the Houthi rebels from Yemen led to longer travel times, higher costs, and fees.
Hapag-Lloyd, like other major shipping companies, has not sent any ships through the Middle East sea route for weeks and is relying on redirecting ships around the southern tip of Africa. This route, which usually goes through the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, and the Mediterranean, is the shortest connection between Southeast Asia and Europe.
A week ago, Hapag-Lloyd expressed its intention to temporarily stick to the diversion while continuously monitoring the security situation.
The EU announces plans for a naval operation to protect shipping in the Red Sea. Additionally, Hapag-Lloyd offers its customers a transit service through Saudi Arabia for especially urgent and valuable goods.
On March 14th, the company will present the final figures and an outlook for the current year.
The share of Hapag-Lloyd experienced a temporary decline of 9.44 percent to 140.00 Euro in XETRA trading.
