German container carrier Hapag-Lloyd is starting to see the commercial benefits of its integration with the container shipping arm of Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV), which is now expected to deliver larger synergies than initially anticipated.
The managed to maintain its profit from earlier this year with a positive result of $175million (EUR 157.2 m) in the first half of the year. This compares with almost $200 million loss incurred in the same period of 2014, before the takeover of Chilean container line CSAV.
Revenue at Hapag-Lloyd reached $5.3 billion in the first half because of the incorporation of CSAV’s container shipping activities and the stronger U.S. dollar. It led to earnings before income tax of $307 million, the carrier said in an announcement to investors.
"We are well on track to achieve clearly positive full year operating results in 2015," Hapag-Lloyd said.
“Besides the initial inclusion of CSAV’s container shipping activities, which have a lower freight rate level overall, the main reason for the decline was the ongoing difficult market environment with increased pressure on freight rates in the second quarter 2015,” according to the statement.
The company says it now expects to deliver an additional $100m of annual synergy savings – on top of the originally anticipated $300m – by 2017.
Chief executive Rolf Habben Jansen said: “After a solid start into 2015, we are satisfied with our results in the first half.”
He added: “Our results prove that the merger with CSAV was the right decision and an important milestone in the development of Hapag-Lloyd.”
With a fleet of 188 modern container ships, Hapag-Lloyd is one of the world’s leading liner shipping companies.
The Company has more than 10,000 employees at more than 349 sites in 116 countries.
Since the merger with CSAV’s container business in December 2014, the Hapag-Lloyd fleet has offered a total transport capacity of around one million standard containers (TEU) as well as a container fleet of 1.6 million TEU – including one of the world’s largest and state-of-the-art reefer fleets.
128 liner services worldwide ensure fast, reliable connections between all the continents. Hapag-Lloyd is a founding member of the G6 Alliance, one of the largest shipping alliances worldwide. Hapag-Lloyd is one of the leading operators in the Atlantic and Latin America trades.
