Chief executive Michael Behrendt blamed low peak season freight rates for net income of EUR 16.6m ($22.2m) in the three months to 30 September versus EUR 45.6m a year earlier.
“The freight rate developments in the third quarter, the peak season for the liner shipping industry, were very disappointing,” Behrendt wrote in the earnings statement
“The irrational behavior in the industry, which once again caused rates to drop drastically in October, is totally incomprehensible,” added Behrendt, who is due to step down in the middle of next year.
Average rates fell by over 10% to $1,476 per TEU in the quarter, while container volumes rose 8.6% to 1.4 million TEU, the company said.
Hapag’s 152 container ships brought in total revenue of EUR 1.7bn, down slightly from EUR 1.8bn in the third quarter of 2012.
The company chopped its nine-month loss to EUR 56.1m from EUR 94.1m a year earlier.
Revenue for the period dipped slightly to just over EUR 5bn.
