After the Corona period last year, the global economy increasingly got going. Demand is increasing – and in many cases exceeds capacity. The transport costs increase. Golden times for shipping companies – and their shareholders.
After the fabulous record profits of the past few years, Germany’s largest container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd expects a rapid decline. For the current year, the traditional Hamburg shipping company has announced an operating profit (EBIT) of between two and four billion euros, after 17.5 billion euros in 2022.
However, in view of the ongoing war in Ukraine and other geopolitical conflicts as well as the effects of inflation, the forecast is subject to considerable uncertainty. “We got off to a decent start in the current financial year, but the economy has cooled off and a significant drop in earnings is unavoidable,” said CEO Rolf Habben Jansen. That is why Hapag-Lloyd will act flexibly on the market and keep an eye on costs. The shipping group is also working on a new strategy up to the year 2030.
Last year, Hapag-Lloyd almost doubled its profit thanks to sharply increased freight prices. Shareholders are to receive a dividend of EUR 63 (2021: 35) per share certificate. The Hamburg billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne alone, one of the richest Germans, collects 3.3 billion euros. The same amount goes to the South American major shareholder CSAV. Overall, the company pays out more than eleven billion euros.
The shipping company earned 34.5 billion euros last year – over 50 percent more than in 2021. The reason was the significantly increased freight rate to an average of 2863 dollars. However, this fell significantly at the end of the year due to easing congestion in the ports and lower demand. According to the information, the transport volume remained at the level of the previous year. With high inflation, the company’s transportation expenses rose by almost a fifth.
According to Hapag Lloyd, it operates more than 250 container ships with a capacity of 1.8 million standard containers. The shipping company operates 119 liner services and controls 600 ports around the world. The company employs 14,200 people worldwide.
Competitor Maersk from Denmark also reported an annual profit of 27.3 billion euros at the beginning of the month thanks to high freight prices for transport and strong demand. This corresponded to an increase of more than 60 percent compared to the previous year, which was also record-breaking. Sales increased by almost a third. The dividend will increase from 2,500 to 4,300 Danish kroner – the equivalent of 577.79 euros per share.
