The corona pandemic had disrupted the supply chains at sea. The winners were container shipping companies, which achieved unprecedented profits. With the end of the pandemic, the pendulum is now swinging back.
The weak economy and the declining demand for sea transport caused the Hamburg container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd to collapse in sales and profits in the second quarter as well. In the period from April to June, the group result fell to a good one billion euros, as Hapag-Lloyd AG announced on Thursday in Hamburg. Compared to the second quarter of the record year 2022, this is a decrease of more than three quarters. Sales halved to about 4.42 billion euros.
The background is the normalization of the supply chains on the oceans, which have been disrupted for years. According to Hapag-Lloyd, the average freight rate fell in the second quarter from $2,935 to $1,533 per standard container.
The massive upheavals in the global supply chains had made all container shipping companies winners of the corona pandemic. Scarce capacities had caused the prices for sea transport to continue to rise after many years of crisis with price wars, overcapacities and red numbers.
With a fleet of 258 container ships and a transport capacity of almost 1.9 million 20-foot standard containers (TEU), Hapag-Lloyd is the fifth largest shipping company in the world, behind Cosco, CMA CGM, Maersk and the Primus MSC.
Source: Stern
