Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, and thank you for joining our conference call on the financial year 2023 results. Before we take a deep dive into our financial performance in the past year, I would like to extend a special welcome to our new Chief Financial Officer, Annette Walter, who has been with us since the beginning of the year. The global economy faced major challenges in 2023. The ongoing war in Ukraine, the military escalation in the Middle East, rising geopolitical tensions, high inflation, and interest rate hikes all impacted the economy and continued to impede the recovery from the pandemic. Over the course of the year, the economic situation became increasingly gloomy, particularly in Germany. This environment also impacted HHLA's business development. As an international logistics company, we are naturally dependent on the global economy.
Economic weakness resulted in even lower throughput volumes than anticipated at the beginning of the year. In addition, inflation-induced cost hikes for materials, maintenance, and personnel took their toll on the group's revenue earnings. Before I hand over to Annette, who will present the financial figures in more detail, just a few words from me on the development of the business. I believe it's important to classify HHLA's volume performance, because we are pretty much in line with our major competitors in the North Range. They also suffered under weak global demand and lost volume compared to the previous year. While HHLA's container throughput in Hamburg was down 6.3% in 2023, the Port of Hamburg as a whole saw a 6.9% decline in container throughput.
The Port of Antwerp-Bruges recorded a 7.2% drop, while Rotterdam suffered a decline of 7%. Obviously, we cannot be satisfied with the overall business figures for 2023, but we have already set the course that will put us back on track for growth. We recognized early on that terminal investments by shipping companies make perfect sense for securing volumes. In 2023, for example, we successfully completed the investment by COSCO in our Tollerort container terminal. This investment secures stable and long-term cargo volumes for the Port of Hamburg. Despite the various challenges of recent years, we continue to successfully drive forward our transformation, even in the face of resistance. Our goal remains to offer our customers sustainable, digitalized, and networked logistics solutions. We are therefore investing EUR millions to ensure that we remain competitive in the long term.
Over the last five years, we have invested more than EUR 1 billion in our core business fields of the port logistics sub-group. Especially in Hamburg, we are consistently pressing ahead with the transformation program that we launched four years ago. Let me therefore give you a bit more color on the progress we have achieved so far. Especially with regard to our container terminal operations, volatility and challenging market conditions are quite familiar to us. In 2020, when we started our transformation program, we were already confronted with the market power of our shipping customers that had grown steadily over the past years. As a consequence, the demand placed on the terminals in terms of price and performance had increased significantly. This happened along with growing ship sizes and increasing competition in the Benelux ports, but also with direct cause in the Baltic Sea region.
We were able to maintain our throughput in this difficult market environment, but we wanted to regain market share. This is why we launched an efficiency program at our Hamburger terminals to secure the future readiness of our container business. We want to increase quality from the customer's point of view, and thus also expand our competitiveness, and we have come a long way since then. At our biggest container terminal, the CTB, we fundamentally changed the system during ongoing operations. At the quayside, two berths of ultra-large vessels are in place, and a third is to come. On land, the rollout of the fully automated storage blocks at Burchardkai is almost complete. So far, we have 19 storage blocks in operation. Three more are currently under construction and will take into operation by year-end, or at least Q1 2025.
A workshop on site for the maintenance of the automated guided vehicles is under construction and will be finished by the third quarter of 2025. In line with our plan to convert the horizontal transport between Waltershofer Becken and the storage blocks from manually operated van carrier to automated guided vehicles, the AGV testing area has been set, and first AGV has already been delivered and is used for testing purposes. This will make Germany's largest container terminal significantly more automated and climate-friendly. With this, I would like to hand over to Annette.
Thank you, Angela, and good afternoon, everyone, also from me. Let's jump directly to the reporting of our container segment... Overall, container throughput at HHLA's terminals decreased by 7.5% to EUR 5.9 million TEU in 2023. Throughput at our terminals in Hamburg fell by 6.3% to 5 million-
TEU.
TEU, yes. And thus developed in line with our main competing North Range ports. This development was mainly driven by lower cargo volumes from the Far East shipping region, especially China. With regard to feeder services, we saw a sharp decline in Swedish and Polish traffic. What's more, Russian volumes were completely absent due to sanctions. As a result, the feeder ratio of seaborne handling decreased by 1.2 percentage points to 18.6. The development of our international container terminals varied. Our Odessa terminal is operational, but still closed for seaborne container handling, except for grain vessels covered by the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
The container terminal, TK Estonia, showed a favorable development, but was unable to match the strong prior year volume trend, which was driven by extra calls at the terminal as an alternative to Russian ports. We also recorded a positive volume development at our terminal in Trieste. However, it was unable to offset the overall decline in volumes. In total, the international terminals reported a decrease in throughput volume of 20.9%. Segment revenue decreased accordingly by 18% year-on-year to EUR 708.8 million. This was mainly due to the decline in volumes and the decrease in storage fees because of normalized dwell time at the Hamburg container terminals. As you all know, in the same period last year, storage fees had increased significantly as a result of disrupted supply chains.
In addition, the closure of CTO, as well as the transfer of an inter-group company, HHLA Personal Service GmbH, from the pro forma holding other segment to the container segment, also had a negative impact on revenue. EBIT costs fell by 6.4% compared to the previous year. This was primarily the result of a significant volume-related decline in personal expenses, a mainly volume and energy price-related shortfall in material expenses, and the ongoing closure of CTO. In addition, other operating income rose by EUR 11 million due to the reversal of other liabilities for ship delays in 2022, as well as a reversal of expenses in connection with machinery breakdown insurance at the Hamburg container terminals. Expenses for external maintenance services, as well as for consulting services and insurance, were reduced significantly.
Notable drivers for this trend were the measures to safeguard earnings implemented in March 2023 at the Altenwerder, Burchardkai, and Tollerort container terminals. By contrast, EBIT costs at the Trieste terminal rose year-over-year due to additional cargo volumes. The integration of HHLA Personal Service GmbH into the container segment also had a negative impact on earnings. Against this backdrop, EBIT fell by 70% to EUR 47.2 million, while the EBIT margin dropped by 11.5 percentage points to 6.7%. So let's move on now to the intermodal segment. The economic weakness of 2023 also took its toll on the hinterland. As a result, container transport fell by 5.4% to 1,602 TEU, compared to the previous year. With regard to rail transport, all major routes were affected by the decline, especially Polish traffic.
In total, rail transport decreased by 3.1% to 11,365 TEUs. Road transport was impacted most severely and suffered a decline of almost 17%. With an increase of 4.2% to EUR 620.5 million, revenue growth contrasted sharply with that of transport volumes. This was driven by an adjusted pricing level in the previous year as a consequence of increased costs for the purchase of services, particularly energy. However, EBIT fell by 23.6% to EUR 72.9 million, mainly due to lower transport volumes. Inflation-related rate increases and the geographic expansion of operations in rail transport towards Southeast Europe also had an impact here. The EBIT margin was still in double figures at 11.7%.
Let's turn briefly to the logistics segment, where we have pooled the vehicle logistics and consultancy divisions, as well as business activities with which HHLA aims to tap new growth fields. In the reporting period, the consolidated companies reported revenue of EUR 78.2 million, up 0.8% on the prior year, prior year figure. This positive development was mainly driven by a leasing company for the intermodal sector, not yet included to the prior year period, which was able to more than offset lower revenue in the vehicle logistics, consultancy, and digital services divisions. There was a positive operating result of EUR 0.6 million in the reporting period.
While the previous year was burdened, in particular, by an impairment of around EUR 4 million for new activities, the vehicle logistics division, and the newly incorporated leasing company contributed to the improvement in earnings in the current reporting period. At equity, earnings declined slightly by 2.2% to EUR 4.1 million in 2023. Coming back to the port logistics subgroup as a whole, let's have a closer look at our cash flow development. In the reporting period, cash flow from operating activities of almost EUR 200 million, mainly comprised earnings before interest and taxes, write-down and write-off, a write-off on non-financial assets, and the decrease in trade receivables and other assets. The main item with an opposing effect were lower income tax payments.
Investing activities resulted in a net cash outflow of EUR 235.4 million, which was noticeably above the prior year figure. This development was largely due to payments for investments in large-scale equipment at the Hamburg container terminals with regard to our efficiency program, as well as the rolling stock for our rail business and lower payments for short-term deposits. As a result, free cash flow of the port logistics subgroup was a negative amount of - EUR 36 million. Cash flow from financing activities totaled EUR 22.6 million, mainly due to the increase in new loans taken out compared to the same period last year, as well as proceeds from the sale of minority shareholding in CTB to COSCO.
In addition, there was an opposing effect from dividend payments and settlement obligations to shareholders of the parent company and non-controlling shareholders, as well as payments for the redemption of lease obligations. Overall, our available liquidity as of the end of December 2023 remained at a robust level of EUR 174.6 million. So the next slide highlights the equity development of the port logistics subgroup. While equity received a significant tailwind from interest rate hikes and the resulting actual gains in 2022, it decreased to EUR 738 million in 2023. This was partly due to the distribution of dividends and the reclassification to financial liabilities of the potential obligation from a put option. The sale of non-controlling interest in a fully consolidated company, as well as a positive result for the reporting period, had the opposite effect.
In view of this development, the equity ratio stood at a sound level of 27%. Our dynamic gearing ratio increased to 5.5x net debt to EBITDA, due to the previously mentioned new loans taken out during this year. Despite all the challenges we have faced over the past year, we are sticking to our dividend policy. Since its IPO in 2007, HHLA has been committed to its profit-oriented dividend policy, which aims to distribute between 50%-70% of annual net profit after minority interest. Based on our financial performance in the 2023 financial year, we will propose, together with the supervisory board, a dividend of EUR 0.08 per Class A share. Subject to the approval of the annual general meeting on June 13th, 2024, we will distribute a total dividend of EUR 5.8 million.
This means a payout ratio of 67%. That concludes my remarks. For a review of our ESG performance, a status update of the strategic steps to secure our core business, and an outlook for the 2024 financial year, let me hand you back to Angela.
Thank you, Annette. In 2023, we drove several sustainability initiatives as part of our mission to become climate neutral. In our view, these are decisive competitive factors and key differentiators for the future. How sustainable our business activities already are, is underlined by the high degree of alignment with the EU Taxonomy, which we are reporting for the second time this year. EU Taxonomy-aligned revenue, capital expenditure, and operating expenses were again at very high levels of nearly 80% or more. Our sustainability efforts made good progress. We now offer more European connections via our rail subsidiary, Metrans, to shift even more goods from the road to more eco-friendly railway transport. We completed the conversion of our AGV fleet at the CTA, and together with our partners, we began work to provide container ships in the Port of Hamburg with shoreside electricity.
All decisive steps for our long-term aim, which is to achieve climate-neutral production throughout the HHLA Group by 2040. Before we turn to the outlook for 2024, I would like to take this opportunity to talk about a topic that kept us busy to a large extent over the last months. The decision by our main shareholder, the City of Hamburg, to enter into a strategic partnership with the shipping company MSC, thus leading to a significant change in HHLA shareholder structure. MSC shareholding has been initiated but has not yet been closed, as some of the conditions precedent are still outstanding. As you may know, committee meetings are currently being held in the Parliament of the City of Hamburg. The members of the parliament are expected to make their final decision on the transaction in late May.
In addition, further antitrust approvals are pending at EU level. At year-end, around 7.5% of shares were still in free float, meaning that many thousands of shareholders are still shareholders of HHLA. The transaction is expected to be concluded in the second quarter of 2024. Further negotiations are currently taking place between HHLA, the City of Hamburg, and MSC to finalize the formal binding preliminary agreement between all parties. On the basis of some vital key commitments, the executive board had agreed to the takeover bid in a recent statement. At the center of the business combination agreement was a capital increase for HHLA to give us more headroom on exclusion of redundancies for operational reasons, reasons for five years, and the guaranteed long-term neutrality of HHLA's business model, e.g., the multi-user concept. The details of this agreement are currently being finalized.
We are confident that the negotiations will be concluded in the near future. Ladies and gentlemen, we are also experiencing tough competition in the current financial year. Against the backdrop of ongoing geopolitical tensions, we expect the environment to remain volatile. On top of that, we expect effects from the announced shifts in shipping company alliances, in particular, the new formation by Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk, the Gemini Alliance. In addition to this development, the expiry of the Antitrust Block Exemption Regulation in April 2024 means that different framework conditions will apply to alliance in future. At the same time, Hapag-Lloyd has already announced that it will withdraw cargo from Hamburg as part of the Gemini Alliance. This means that the entire industry faces fundamental change. The impact on HHLA as a whole and on container handling in Hamburg, in particular, is not yet foreseeable.
Against this backdrop, our forecast for 2024 is subject to a high degree of uncertainty. However, we expect the port logistics subgroup to achieve significant year-on-year growth in container throughput and a moderate increase in container transport in 2024. All in all, a moderate year-on-year increase in revenue is expected. A significant increase is assumed for the container segment and a moderate increase for the intermodal segment. Overall, an EBIT result in the range of EUR 70 million-EUR 100 million is considered possible for the port logistics subgroup for the 2024 financial year. Within this range, a strong decrease is forecasted for the container segment and a moderate increase for the intermodal segment.
To further increase efficiency and expand capacity in the container and intermodal segments, capital expenditure in the port logistics subgroup will be in the range of EUR 360 million-EUR 410 million in the container segment. Investments will focus on the efficient use of existing terminal space in the Port of Hamburg and the expansion of foreign terminals, and in the intermodal segment on the expansion of the group's own transport and handling capacity. With this outlook, I would like to close my remarks on our financial results, 2023. Annette and myself, we are ready to take your questions now. Thank you.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch or telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questions from the phone are requested to use headsets while asking question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. Once again, to register for a question, you may press star and one. It looks like we have no questions over the phone. I hand back over to Angela Titzrath for any closing remarks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your interest and your ongoing support to HHLA. Please keep in mind, as challenging as these uncertain times may be, they also present us with a wealth of opportunities. Please stay healthy and take care. Goodbye.