The boss of the Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, Rolf Habben Jansen, sees clear signs of a normalization of the tense supply chains. “Six months ago each of our ships was three or four times overbooked, now the ships are maybe 20 percent overbooked. That is a key indicator,” Habben Jansen told WELT AM SONNTAG. The return times for empty containers have also fallen. And the situation in the ports has also eased further, from the west coast of the USA to Asia and South America.
The world’s fifth largest liner shipping company with more than 250 ships and 3.1 million containers increased its profit almost tenfold last year compared to the first Corona year 2020. Hapag-Lloyd reported a net profit of around nine billion euros, but only paid around 61 million euros in taxes due to the flat-rate taxation of shipping with the so-called tonnage tax. “In the current phase, the tonnage tax rate is of course very low, to be fair,” admitted Habben Jansen. But it won’t stay that way. He also recalled that a decade ago – even then with the tonnage tax – the industry paid 20 to 30 percent of its net profit in taxes.
Nevertheless, Habben Jansen showed understanding for the debate about an excess profit tax for companies that make enormous profits in crises without much of their own doing. But “if you want to change something, you have to say clearly how it can and should work on an international level,” said the shipping company boss. Shipping is the most international industry of all.
Habben Jansen does not see a de-globalization because of the Ukraine war and the tensions between China and Taiwan. “Above all, countries like India or the African continent need globalized trade in order to be able to develop further.” With a de-globalization of the economy, costs and prices rose, which would be a step backwards for many countries and people. “I believe that in the long run globalization is needed to supply a large and growing world population with goods.”
Habben Jansen said Hapag Lloyd is considering further stakes in container terminals. “We have learned in recent years that it can be advantageous to have a certain influence on the infrastructure when handling your own ships.” Such is the experience with HHLA’s Altenwerder container terminal in Hamburg and with Tanger Med terminal Eurogate on the Mediterranean very positive. Most recently, Hapag Lloyd invested in the terminal at JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven and decided to build a new building with Eurogate in Damietta, Egypt.