GERMANY’s Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth largest container line, has enjoyed a strong first quarter, boosting the Group to an EBITDA of USD 1.1 billion (EUR 1.0 billion).
In the same period, the Group EBIT increased to USD 487 million (EUR 463 million) and the Group profit increased by 45%, to USD 469 million (EUR 446 million).
Hapag-Lloyd highlighted the Liner Shipping segment, where revenues increased to USD 5.2 billion (EUR 5.0 billion). The main drivers of this were a transport volume of 3.3 million TEU and an average freight rate of 1,480 USD/TEU, both of which were 9% higher than in the same quarter of 2024 due to strong demand.
Compared to the first quarter of 2024, the EBITDA rose by 18%, to USD 1.1 billion (EUR 1.0 billion) and the EBIT rose by 25%, to USD 472 million (EUR 448 million).
In the Terminal & Infrastructure segment, an EBITDA of USD 36 million (EUR 34 million) and an EBIT of USD 15 million (EUR 14 million) were achieved in the first quarter of 2025. In addition, the acquisition of a majority stake in the CNMP LH Terminal in Le Havre secured strategically important access to the French market, the company said.
“With this quarterly result, we have gotten 2025 off to a good start,” Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd AG, said.
“In Gemini Cooperation [with Maersk], we have achieved the targeted high schedule reliability, with which we have been able to clearly set ourselves apart from our competitors. We have made good progress with Hanseatic Global Terminals as we strengthened our position in France.
“The situation in the Red Sea and the impact of global tariffs and trade policies continue to be causes for concern for the entire logistics industry and bring with them considerable uncertainty. We will continue to implement our Strategy 2030, vigorously focus on our costs and target additional savings of more than USD 1 billion within the next 18 months,” he said.
For the 2025 financial year, the Executive Board continues to expect the Group EBITDA to be in the range of USD 2.5 to 4.0 billion (EUR 2.4 to 3.9 billion) and the Group EBIT to be in the range of USD 0.0 to 1.5 billion (EUR 0.0 to 1.5 billion).
As per the projections of all major carriers to have reported so far, Hapag-Lloyd said that in light of major geopolitical challenges and volatile freight rates, the outlook is subject to a very high degree of uncertainty.
Alphaliner lists Hapag-Lloyd as operating 300 ships with a total capacity of 2,532,976 TEU for a 7.4% global market share.