Winter Weather, US Port Labor are Wild Cards in Shipping -Hapag-Lloyd

The shipping industry may face unexpected risks from labor negotiations in western U.S. ports and winter weather in the northern hemisphere over the next few months, the head of German container firm Hapag-Lloyd said on Thursday.

"Winter can have a significant impact on shipping," Chief Executive Rolf Habben Jansen said in an online call with reporters, adding the weather conditions looked normal so far.

"The other thing are the labour negotiations on the U.S. west coast, where it is in everyone's interest to reach an agreement reasonably fast," he added.

Last week, the company reported a more than 10-fold increase in its nine-month net profit.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Zuzanna Szymanska)