Strong freight rates help Hapag-Lloyd profits soar, despite loss of market share

The recent strength in container spot freight rates drove a 480% year-on-year increase in group profit at Hapag-Lloyd in the third quarter, despite its liner shipping operations seeing flat volumes, indicating lost market share.

Revenue in its liner shipping segment rose 25% year on year in Q3, “driven by a significantly higher average freight rate of $1,808 per teu”, compared with $1,413 per teu in the same period last year.

Its third-quarter volumes reached 3.4m, marginally below last year and clearly below the global market – Container Trades Statistics (CTS) recently released Q3 data showed global volumes growing 5% year on year.

However, Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen said the period had seen exceptionally high levels of vessel utilisation, which had supported the higher freight prices.

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