Hapag-Lloyd has posted a loss in the fourth quarter as freight rates plunged.
The German container ship giant said pre-tax earnings were significantly lower in 2023, as it had expected.
The Ebit loss was €200m ($216m) in the last three months, against a profit of €3.3bn a year earlier.
Ebitda came in at €300m, down from €3.8bn in the final quarter of 2022.
Cargo volumes edged up to 3m teu from 2.9m teu, but the average freight rate decreased by 48% over the whole of 2023.
Fourth-quarter revenue was down to €3.8bn from €7.8m in 2022.
Transport volumes totalled 11.9m teu last year, up 0.5%.
Ebitda for 2023 as a whole was chopped from €19.4m to €4.5bn.
“This can largely be attributed to lower freight rates resulting from the normalisation of global supply chains,” the company said.
Full-year revenue decreased to €17.9bn from €34.5bn, primarily owing to a lower average freight rate of $1,500 per teu, down from $2,863 per teu the year before.
“However, the conflict in the Red Sea negatively impacted transport volumes at the end of the year, as the rerouting of ships around the Cape of Good Hope extended voyage times,” the liner said.
These journey times have been boosting freight rates in January, however.
Hapag-Lloyd’s full annual report and profit guidance for 2024 is due on 14 March.
The owner has a fleet of 264 modern container ships and a total transport capacity of 2m teu.
