In the first quarter of 2011, Hapag-Lloyd managed to boost revenues by comparison with the same period with the previous year by 16.5 percent to €1,483 million (US$2,042 million).
Hapag-Lloyd credited this mainly to a ten percent rise in the average freight rate to 1,563 US$/TEU. Transport volume was two percent up on the 2010 first quarter at 1.2 million TEU.
Adjusted EBIT in the first quarter totalled €16.1 million, an improvement of €9.4 million on the previous year. Operative cash flow rose by €16 million to €34.5 million.
"Given the prevailing conditions, we achieved a good result in the first quarter. Nevertheless, the rise in the oil price, the weak US-dollar and growing competition are making business more difficult. Our aim must be to see that the additional external challenges are covered by appropriate rate increases," commented Michael Behrendt, Chairman of the Executive Board of Hapag-Lloyd Holding.
Total transport volume in the first quarter rose by two percent to 1.2 million TEU. Here developments varied on the different trade routes. The Atlantic more or less reached the previous year's level with a volume of 273,000 (Q1 2010: 276,000) TEU. In the trades with Latin America, with 265,000TEU, it managed to increase the previous year's volume by 6.5 percent. On the Far East routes, Hapag-Lloyd said it rejected transport contracts with lower price quality, so that volume was down from 284,000TEU to 260,000TEU. The trans-Pacific reported a positive trend, volume during the period rising from 238,000TEU to 266,000TEU. The same applied to Australasia, where Hapag-Lloyd boosted volume by 6.1 percent to 134,000TEU. At 1,563 US dollars per TEU, the average freight rate was 9.9 percent higher than the comparable figure for the previous year.
By comparison with the quarter ended December 31, 2010, the net financial position improved by €46 million to €-1.080 million.
