BERLIN, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Revenues of German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd increased by around 3 percent to 14.1 billion U.S. dollars in the financial year 2019 compared to the previous year, the company announced on Friday.
At the same time, the net result of Hapag-Lloyd improved significantly from 54 million dollars to around 418 million dollars, according to the company's audited business results.
The average freight rate of 1,072 dollars per 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) rose by 2.7 percent over the previous year "due to a stronger focus on more profitable trade lanes and active revenue management," Hapag-Lloyd noted.
The 1.4 percent year-on-year increase in transport volumes to more than 12 million TEU "also made a positive contribution to revenues," according to the company, which has a fleet of 239 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 1.7 million TEU.
"Today we are in rapidly changing and uncertain times, but that does not take away that 2019 was a very good year for Hapag-Lloyd," said Rolf Habben Jansen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Hapag-Lloyd.
The CEO added that "we benefited from higher volumes and better freight rates, kept a close eye on our costs and brought down our financial debt significantly."
For 2020, Hapag-Lloyd is expecting earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 0.54 to 1.2 billion dollars, after EBIT of 908 million dollars in 2019. Enditem
