Hapag-Lloyd’s financial year is off to a flying start.
The Hamburg-based liner company expects quarterly and full-year earnings to be significantly higher than last year.
But it said container markets could return to normal later this year.
It said Ebita should be at least $1.8bn in the first quarter, up from $517m in the corresponding period last year.
Ebit is forecast to grow to $1.5bn over the period, compared with just $176m in the first three months of 2020.
“We will see a very strong result in the first quarter, but we anticipate a normalisation as the year progresses,” said chief executive Rolf Habben Jansen.
“We are still seeing slower container turn times, significant congestion in ports around the globe, capacity constraints in rail and truck, and the risks of the coronavirus pandemic remain.
“Nevertheless, we do also expect that the result for 2021 as a whole will be significantly higher than the prior-year level.”
'A very good start'
The year has got off to “a very good start” for Hapag-Lloyd, thanks to exceptionally strong demand for container transports, which has led to a much higher level of freight rates, the company said.
Based on preliminary figures for January, it expects full-year earnings for the 2021 business year “will clearly surpass the prior year”.
But the forecast is subject to considerable uncertainty, it added, due to above-average volatility of freight rates, operational challenges caused by existing infrastructure bottlenecks and the inability to predict the further course or economic impacts of the pandemic.
Hapag-Lloyd is the second big liner operator to warn that the container shipping market could begin to stabilise in the coming weeks.
AP Moller-Maersk said in mid-February that earnings this year could be $1.5bn less than forecast as the surging container market returns to normal.
The Danish company has forecast lower-than-expected Ebitda of between $8.5bn and $10.5bn for 2021.
