Hapag-Lloyd retained its market share in 2024, with its volumes increasing at the same pace as the rest of the market.
In its preliminary numbers for 2024, the German liner showed marginal improvement, with transported volumes up 5%, to 12.5m teu, as freight rates, after oscillating throughout the year, ended broadly flat, declining year on year from $1,500 per teu in 2023 to $1,492.
Group ebitda rose slightly, from $4.8bn to $5bn, while ebit rose from $2.7bn to $2.8bn, with “both key figures in the upper range of the adjusted earnings forecast published in October 2024”, noted the carrier.
Revenues rose, to $20.7bn, “particularly owing to stronger demand for container transports ”.
Its fourth-quarter results, meanwhile, showed significant improvement over Q4 23.
While volumes were broadly flat, year on year, freight rates per teu were $1,564 in 2024, up from $1,190 in 2023. As a result, revenues rose from $4.1 bn to $5.4bn, and ebitda grew 366%, to $1.4bn. Ebit rose from negative $0.3bn to $0.8bn.
In October, Hapag-Lloyd – while increasing its outlook for the year – warned that amid “a backdrop of very volatile freight rates and major geopolitical challenges, the forecast is subject to a high degree of uncertainty”, as well as increased costs.
Together with Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd launches the Gemini network on Saturday, with its stated aim to be the “undisputed number-one for quality”, its MD of global commercial development, Henrik Schilling, said.
“It was clear to us that we have to step-change on the on-time delivery – the on-time delivery on a box level towards our customers. Poor reliability is, in our perspective, a big issue in our industry, not only for our customers, but also for our cost base, because you then have all these clean-up and divergence costs, and hence we need to solve this.”
Hapag-Lloyd’s annual report for 2024 will be published on 20 March.