Despite higher volumes, Hapag-Lloyd witnessed a steep fall in operating profit in 2016 that it traced to “a significantly lower average freight rate.”
The German shipping liner’s operating result (EBIT) amounted to EUR126 million (US$140 million) in 2016, down 66% from EUR366 million in 2015.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation of intangible and fixed assets (EBITDA) reached EUR607 million from EUR831 million in 2015, while the EBITDA margin is 7.9%.
However, in the fourth quarter of last year, Hapag-Lloyd was able to increase EBITDA to EUR226 million compared to the EUR140 million posted in the same quarter of the previous year, and EBIT went up to EUR100 million in Q4 2016 from EUR17.8 million in the last quarter of 2015.
The carrier said revenue decreased to EUR7.7 billion in 2016 from the 2015 figure of EUR8.8 billion. This was due to a significantly lower average freight rate of $1,036 per TEU last year as against $1,225 per TEU the preceding year.
The decline came even as its transport volume increased by 2.7% to 7.6 million TEUs compared to 7.4 million TEUs in 2015.
Photo: Garitzko
