Hapag-Lloyd posts strong H1 financial results, but said ‘bottlenecks in the supply chains continue to cause enormous strains’
Hapag-Lloyd has published its figures for the first half year of 2021. It concluded with an EBITDA of US$4.2Bn. EBIT rose to US$3.5Bn, and the group’s profit climbed to US$3.3Bn.
“In a market with very strong demand for container transports, we have benefitted from significantly improved freight rates and look back on a very good first half year. Among other things, we were able to reduce our net debt by US$1.5Bn, although we paid out a significantly higher dividend compared to the prior year,” said Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen.
Revenues increased in the first half year of 2021 by approximately 51%, to US$0.6Bn mainly because of a 46% higher average freight rate of 1,612 US$/TEU.
Hapag-Lloyd said that the freight rate development was the result of “high demand combined with scarce transport capacities and severe infrastructural bottlenecks”. Transport volumes were up to 6,004 TEU, 4% higher than the previous year, which was impacted by a slump in demand in the second quarter due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, a roughly 6% lower average bunker consumption price, which amounted US$421 per tonne in the first half year of 2021, had a positive impact on earnings.
Mr Habben Jansen said: “We are naturally pleased by this extraordinary financial result. But the bottlenecks in the supply chains continue to cause enormous strains and inefficiencies for all market participants and we have to do our utmost to resolve them jointly as soon as possible. Looking at the market environment today, we however do not believe that the situation will return to normal any time soon – despite all the efforts made and the additional container box capacity that is being injected. We currently expect the market situation only to ease in the first quarter of 2022 at the earliest.”
Riviera’s Container Ship Tech & Ops Webinar Week will focus on the transition to zero emissions, containers lost overboard and scrubber technology
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.