HHLA closes first half of 2025 very successfully

The first half of 2025 continued to be defined by a weak economy in Germany, geopolitical conflicts and growing uncertainty caused by US trade policy. In this challenging environment, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) increased its revenue and operating result strongly compared with the previous year. Revenue in the HHLA Group rose by 16.3 percent to € 884.5 million (previous year: € 760.3 million). The Group operating result (EBIT) climbed by 34.8 percent to € 79.4 million (previous year: € 58.9 million). The EBIT margin amounted to 9.0 percent (previous year: 7.7 percent). Profit after tax and minority interests came to € 19.1 million (previous year: € 13.2 million).

Angela Titzrath, CEO of HHLA: “Despite geopolitical tension and economic uncertainty, HHLA fared very successfully in the first half of 2025. The Intermodal segment recorded particularly strong revenue growth thanks to an increase in road and rail transport. Container handling at the terminals also rose significantly. This underscores the effectiveness of our integrated Europe-wide logistics solutions. Our performance also demonstrates that HHLA is well placed to navigate safely through an environment that remains volatile – and to continue its growth as it looks to the future.”

The listed Port Logistics subgroup recorded a strong increase of 16.6 percent in revenue to € 865.7  million in the first six months of 2025 (previous year: € 742.5  million). The operating result (EBIT) increased by 40.1 percent to € 72.4  million (previous year: € 51.7  million). The EBIT margin rose year-on-year by 1.4 percentage points to 8.4 percent (previous year: 7.0 percent). Profit after tax and minority interests came to € 15.3  million (previous year: € 8.9  million). Earnings per share thus amounted to € 0.21 (previous year: € 0.12).

In the Container segment, container throughput at HHLA’s container terminals increased significantly by 7.9 percent to 3,172 thousand standard containers (TEU) (previous year: 2,940 thousand TEU).

At 3,006 thousand TEU, throughput volume at the Hamburg container terminals was up 6.9 percent on the same period of the previous year (previous year: 2,811 thousand TEU). Whereas volumes in overseas traffic declined strongly for the North America and Middle East shipping regions, there was significant volume growth for the Far East shipping region, especially for China. Additional cargo volume was also recorded for other European seaports, particularly in Belgium, the UK, France and the Netherlands. This was due to temporary route adjustments – which continue to apply – caused by the military conflict in the Red Sea. There was strong year- on-year growth in feeder traffic volumes. In addition to Finnish traffic, there was also a strong rise in container throughput with Poland and within Germany. Meanwhile, cargo volumes from Estonia were down. The proportion of seaborne handling by feeders amounted to 19.6 percent (previous year: 18.7 percent).

The international container terminals reported a strong increase in throughput volume of 28.7 percent to 165 thousand TEU (previous year: 129 thousand TEU). In addition to the volume growth at HHLA PLT Italy, this was due in particular to the resumption of seaborne handling at Container Terminal Odessa (CTO) in the third quarter of 2024. Seaborne handling volumes at the multifunctional terminal HHLA TK Estonia also rose slightly.

Segment revenue increased strongly by 12.6 percent in the reporting period to € 426.2 million (previous year: € 378.7 million). This was primarily due to the positive development of volumes. The positive trend at HHLA’s international container terminals also contributed to the increase in revenue. Against this backdrop, the operating result (EBIT) climbed by 24.5 percent to € 42.8 million (previous year: € 34.4 million). The EBIT margin rose by 0.9 percentage points to 10.0 percent (previous year: 9.1 percent).

The Intermodal segment saw a strong increase in volumes in the first half of 2025. Container transport increased by a total of 19.6 percent to 997 thousand TEU (previous year: 833 thousand TEU).

Rail transport rose year-on-year by 20.2 percent to 863 thousand TEU (previous year: 719 thousand TEU). This strong volume growth was largely due to traffic with the North German and Adriatic seaports, as well as traffic in the German-speaking countries. There was also a strong rise in road transport of 16.0 percent to 133 thousand TEU (previous year: 115 thousand TEU).

With a year-on-year increase of 22.2 percent to € 400.5  million (previous year:€ 327.7 million), revenue growth was stronger than the increase in transport volumes. This was due in particular to price adjustments, as well as to rail’s higher share of total transport volumes.

The operating result (EBIT) amounted to € 48.2 million in the reporting period and was thus 23.1 percent above the prior-year figure (previous year: € 39.2 million). The EBIT margin rose by 0.1 percentage points to 12.0 percent (previous year: 11.9 percent). The main reason for this strong EBIT growth was the increase in transport volumes. By contrast, operational difficulties due, among other factors, to construction work on major transport routes weighed on the result.

HHLA’s properties in the Speicherstadt historical warehouse district and the fish market area reported stable growth in the first half of 2025, with almost full occupancy in both districts.

Revenue rose slightly by 1.8 percent in the reporting period to € 23.4 million (previous year: € 23.0 million). While income from the fish market area remained more or less stable, the increase was due to successful lease renewals and reletting of space in the Speicherstadt historical warehouse district.

By contrast, the cumulative operating result (EBIT) dropped moderately by 3.4 percent to € 6.7 million in the reporting period (previous year: € 7.0 million). Increased rental income and lower maintenance costs could only partly offset the higher charges for on-operating expenses and depreciation.

In the first six months of the 2025 financial year, there were no new events of material importance to necessitate any adjustment to the expectations for the course of business in the 2025 financial year as published in the 2024 Annual Report at the end of March.

Based on the course of business in the first six months of 2025, HHLA’s Executive Board has provided a more specific range for its forecast of EBIT in the current financial year: at Group level, EBIT is now expected to fall within a range of € 195 million to € 215 million (previously: € 195 million to € 235 million). EBIT for the Port Logistics subgroup is now expected to be within a range of € 180 million to € 200 million (previously: € 180 million to € 220 million).

The Half-year Financial Report is available at:
report.hhla.de/half-year-financial-report-2025/