EBIT falls to 2.5 billion euros
The Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd has its Annual report published for the year 2023. This records a sharp decline, which was reportedly expected. The EBITDA amounted to 4.5 billion euros, the EBIT 2.5 billion euros and the Consolidated net income 3 billion euros.
Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd AG, explains: „We have achieved the third-best Group result in the history of our company - even if it is significantly below the exceptionally strong year 2022 due to the normalisation of global supply chains. We were able to significantly increase customer satisfaction and further digitalise our container fleet.“ Hapag-Lloyd intends to further expand its involvement in the terminal and infrastructure segment in the future and expand its business activities in liner shipping in India and Africa. The company also aims to be climate-neutral by 2045.
Details on individual segments
According to the figures, the transport volume in the liner shipping segment increased by 0.5 per cent to 11.9 million TEU. However, transport expenses fell by 11 per cent to 11.9 billion euros. This was due to lower demurrage and storage charges for containers and a lower bunker consumption price. Overall, turnover in this segment totalled 17.8 billion euros. EBITDA fell to 4.4 billion euros and EBIT to 2.5 billion euros.
The Terminal and Infrastructure segment is currently under construction and will therefore not achieve the results as in 2022, with sales of EUR 187 million, EBITDA of EUR 46 million and EBIT of EUR 19 million.
Future prospects
Accordingly, the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG have decided to offer a dividend of EUR 9.25 per share for the 2023 financial year. This would correspond to a total amount of EUR 1.6 billion, making it the third-highest amount distributed in the company's history.
The forecast for the current 2024 financial year is EBITDA of between EUR 1 and 3 billion and EBIT of between minus EUR 1 and 1 billion. A decline is assumed.
„We have made a satisfactory start to the current financial year, but the economic and political environment remains volatile and challenging - particularly in view of the current situation around the Red Sea. [...] As part of our Strategy 2030, we are focussing even more intensively on quality and sustainability,“ says Jansen.