HAPAG-LLOYD has announced preliminary fourth-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation of $1.4bn, up $900m on the corresponding quarter in 2023.

That’s despite transport volumes increasing by a modest 100,000 teu in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Overall preliminary Ebitda was $5bn for 2023, versus $4.8bn in 2023. Revenue increased $1.3bn to $20.7bn in 2024.

Hapag-Lloyd itself attributed the increase in revenue to “higher transport volumes combined with a stable average freight rate”.

The average freight rate for 2024 as a whole was actually down slightly on 2023 (just $9 per teu), but for the fourth quarter of 2024 average rates were up more than 30%, which perhaps explains the surge in fourth-quarter earnings.

While still only preliminary figures, those earnings exceed forecasts made by Hapag-Lloyd throughout the year, which ranged from $1bn-$3bn at the start of 2024 to $4.2bn-$4.6bn in October 2024.

Vespucci Maritime chief executive Lars Jensen called those profit levels “solid”, but highlighted that they were nowhere near the $20.5bn Ebitda seen in 2022.

As Lloyd’s List reported at the end of last year, 2024 was supposed to be the year that ordering caught up with container carriers.

Red Sea diversions “saved liner shipping”, Alphaliner said, and Hapag-Lloyd’s preliminary reports suggest that sentiment could well be accurate.