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Hapag container in the port of Hamburg: Billions in profit despite the corona crisis
Photo:
Fabian Bimmer / REUTERS
While many industries are suffering from the consequences of the corona crisis, business is booming at shipping companies.
A high demand for container transport and cheap fuel brought the Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd a strong profit jump in the Corona year 2020.
Because the company also significantly reduced its costs, earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) rose year-on-year according to preliminary figures by around 60 percent to around 1.3 billion euros, as Hapag-Lloyd announced in Hamburg on Wednesday.
The company had already expected the better result and raised its earnings forecast accordingly in December.
As CEO Rolf Habben Jansen reported a few weeks ago, the ships were barely enough in autumn to transport the huge amounts of goods to their customers.
According to the preliminary figures, the transport volume for the year as a whole fell by 1.6 percent to 11.8 million standard containers.
But increased transport prices drove sales up by three percent to 12.8 billion euros.
The shipping company also reduced operating and fuel costs.
In this way, Hapag-Lloyd was able to make up for special charges in the fourth quarter, which, according to the information, were primarily due to an optimization of the freighter fleet.
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mic / dpa