German container shipping group Hapag-Lloyd has announced that it saw an increase in earnings and revenue through the third quarter of the year, although it turned in a loss for the first nine months of 2012.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for the third quarter came in at €164.2m, up 56 per cent on the previous year, on revenue that jumped 15 per cent to €1.8bn.
However, after a disappointing opening to the year, net results for the first nine months of 2012 came to a loss of €94.1m, compared with a loss of €23.1m in the same period of 2011.
'Given the intense competition and gloomier economic prospects, this is a good result,' said chairman Michael Behrendt. 'Unfortunately, given the absence of a peak season, we were not able to continue the upward trend in freight rates in the third quarter.'
