Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our conference call on the financial results for the first half of 2023. I'm pleased to take you through the figures today and give you some color on the latest development. As expected, 2023 is turning into another challenging year for HHLA. The ongoing war in Ukraine, geopolitical tensions, inflation, and rising interest rates are adding to the ongoing uncertainty and are dampening consumer and industry buying behavior. The global economic downturn and weak domestic demand in many countries have slowed the anticipated post-pandemic recovery. Economic development in Germany was more severely affected by the after effects of the energy crisis and the restrictive monetary policy than expected at the beginning of the year. As a result, several economic research institutes have lowered their economic growth expectation for the current year.
As a European logistics company, we are feeling the effects in the same way as all other players in the global supply chains. The significant decline in volume that became apparent in the Q1 continued in the Q2 . Consequently, container throughput at HHLA's terminals declined significantly in the first half of 2023. In addition, we saw an increasing normalization of container dwell times at our terminals as congestion in the supply chains eased. As a result, storage fees fell strongly in the first half of 2023. Both effects weighted on the earnings development of the container segment. By contrast, HHLA intermodal companies experienced only a moderate decline in transport volumes, as well as EBIT in the first half of the year.
Given the negative impact on earnings in the first six months and the considerably weaker outlook for the remainder of the year, we have already adjusted our forecast for the 2023 financial year. I will come back to this later. In view of this challenging macroeconomic environment, we have strengthened our cost discipline. Expenditure and projects are carefully reviewed for their necessity, and if not urgently required, are put on hold. Our aim is to achieve savings with an immediate effect. At the same time, we are still pushing ahead with a comprehensive efficiency program that we initiated for our Hamburger terminals. These measures will strengthen our competitiveness and are necessary investment to secure HHLA's earning power by increasing efficiency and productivity in the long term. At CTT, for example, four more storage cranes were put into operation in the past first half of the year.
The finalization of the non-controlling interest of 20.99% of COSCO Shipping Ports Limited in CTT is another important step for us to secure HHLA's position as an important hub in the North Range. Together, we can now start to develop CTT into a preferred handling location for our long-standing customers. There was also positive news from Estonia, where our subsidiary, TK Estonia, and Munich-based Scaleup Fernride, have successfully completed the first phase of their joint project. Both companies will continue to develop the project at our Estonian terminal, aimed at enabling autonomous truck driving for regular yard operations. All the above examples illustrate HHLA's clear focus on developing sustainable, innovative, and profitable logistics solutions. This is because we firmly believe that only a sustainable logistics network can meet the growing requirements, especially in the current adverse market environment.
We will therefore continue to focus on our strategy based on sustainability and growth. After this overview of our activities in the first six months, I would now like to go into the details of our segment development. Let me start straight away with the reporting of our container segment. As I already mentioned, container throughput at HHLA's terminals decreased strongly by 14.6% to 2,876,000 TEU in the first half of 2023. Throughput at our terminals in Hamburg fell by 12.7% to 2,763,000 TEU, and this development was mainly driven by lower cargo volumes from the Far East shipping region. Regarding 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 2.5 percentage points to 18.4. 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, which was put on hold right now. The container terminal, TK Estonia, showed a favorable development, but was unable to match the strong pre-year volume trend, which was driven by extra calls at the terminal as an alternative to Russian ports. There was a positive volume development at our terminal in Trieste. However, it was unable to fully offset the overall decline in volumes. In total, the international terminals reported a decrease in volume of 43.9%, mainly driven by the missing part from Odessa.
Segment revenue decreased accordingly by 19.7% year-on-year to EUR 362.2 million. This was mainly due to the sharp decline in volumes and the decrease in storage fees because of the shorter dwell times at the Hamburger container terminals. As you all know, in the same period last year, storage fees had increased significantly as a result of disrupted supply chains. The closure of CTO, as well as the transfer of an intergroup company from the pro forma holding, other segment to the container segment, also had a negative impact on revenue. EBIT costs decreased by 7.1% compared to the previous year, and mainly due to the volume-related decline in personnel expenses and the ongoing CTO closure.
A reversal of restructuring provisions of EUR 11 million and a release of other liabilities for ship delays, which was in the high single-digit EUR million range, also supported this development. By contrast, the decrease in energy costs was proportionally less than the decline in volumes. EBIT costs also increased at our terminal in Trieste year-on-year, due to the additional cargo volumes. Against this backdrop, EBIT fell by 70.62% to EUR 19.1 million, while the EBIT margin dropped by 12.9 percentage points to 5.4%. Let's turn the page. Let's turn now to the intermodal segment. The economic slowdown of the first six months did not stop at the quayside, although volume effects were moderate. Compared to the previous year, container transport fell only by 3.7% to 819,000 TEUs.
With regard to rail transport, all major routes were affected by the decline, with the North German seaports and the Polish traffic hit particular hard. Only Rotterdam traffic managed an increase, albeit at a comparative low level. In total, rail transport decreased by 2.5% to 691,000 TEUs. Road transport also declined by 9.9%. With an increase of 11.1% to EUR 360 million, revenue growth outperformed the volume development. This was driven by an adjusted pricing level in the previous year as a consequence of increased costs for the purchase of services, especially the energy costs. EBIT fell by 3.9% to EUR 14.1 million, mainly due to lower transport volumes. The EBIT margin was still in double figures at 13.1%.
Let's have a look now at the logistics segment, where we have pooled our vehicle logistics and consultancy divisions, as well as business activities, which with HHLA aims to tap new growth fields. In the reporting period, the consolidated companies reported revenue of EUR 14.8 million, thus exceeded the pre-year figure by 10.3%. This positive development was mainly driven by vehicle logistics, consulting activities, and our division for process automatization. Nevertheless, the operating results showed a loss of EUR 0.2 million in the reporting period. The previous year was particularly burdened by an impairment of around EUR 4 million for activities aimed to open up new growth fields. At equity, earnings were unchanged from the previous year at EUR 1.7 million for the reporting period.
Coming back to the Port Logistics subgroup as a whole, let's have a closer look at our cash flow development. Cash flow from operating activities decreased by around EUR 12.5 million to EUR 101.5 million as of June 30, 2023. This was due to the lower EBIT result, as well as a decrease in trade liabilities and other liabilities compared to the previous year. The reduction of trade receivables and other assets had an opposing effect. Investing activities resulted in a net cash flow of EUR 110.9 million, which was noticeably above the pre year figure. This development was largely due to the payments for investments in large-scale equipment at the Hamburger container terminals and rolling stock for our rail business, as well as payments for short-term deposits.
Result, free cash flow of the Port Logistics subgroup was negative at -EUR 9.3 million. Cash flow from financing activities totaled EUR 21 million, due mainly 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 of CTT to COSCO. Our available liquidity at the end of June 2023 remained at a robust level of EUR 179.5 million. Ladies and gentlemen, let's have a look on forecast and the guidance of 2023. HHLA's economic development in the first half of 2023 was largely in line with our expectations. In those markets of importance to the Port Logistics subgroup, the post-pandemic economic recovery in the current financial year has been weaker than the forecast by leading economic institutes at the beginning of the year.
HHLA's business performance reflects this market sentiment. The sharp decline in volumes recorded in the Q1 of 2023, due to the macroeconomic situation, continued in the Q2 of the current year. In an ad hoc disclosure on July 27, HHLA therefore announced the lowering of its forecast for the financial year 2023. Against the background of a slower global economic recovery, a significant year-on-year decline in container throughput is now expected for the Port Logistics subgroup. Container transport is expected to be on par with 2022. A significant decrease in revenue is now expected for the Port Logistics subgroup. This development is the result of a strong volume-related decrease in revenue of the container segment, which cannot be offset by a significant increase in revenue of the intermodal segment.
Expectations for EBIT have been adjusted accordingly and now range from EUR 100 million-EUR 120 million. Within this range, a strong decrease continues to be expected for the container segment. A slight year-on-year decrease in segment EBIT is expected for the intermodal segment. Overall, a significant decrease in revenue is now forecast at group level. Against the background of the changed expectations, EBIT will be between EUR 115 million and EUR 135 million. To further increase efficiency and expand capacity in the container and intermodal segments, the target for capital expenditure in the Port Logistics subgroup is still in the range of EUR 220 million-EUR 270 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 in, in the intermodal segment on the expansion of the group's own transport and handling capacities. We will continue to pursue our goal of tapping potential earnings of EUR 400 million in the medium term, so that we can invest further in our market positions, in new business, and in the decarbonization of our operations. At the same time, the effects of the war and the global economic development, including central bank interest rates, will require us to review our time horizons. With this outlook, I would like to close my remarks on our financial results for the first 6 months, 2023, and I will be happy to take your questions now.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star followed by two. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. We have the first question from Christian Karas with Raiffeisen Research. Please go ahead. Mr. Christian Karas, you're now live. Maybe unmute yourself.
Oh, sorry. Yes, sorry, I was muted. Good, hello, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe first, regarding your new EBIT expectation, this actually implies H2 EBIT in the range of at least EUR 60 million for group EBIT. Now, you have reached EUR 40 million in H1. As you pointed out in your presentation, this included positive effects from the provision and also from the release of ship liabilities in the magnitude of close to EUR 20 million. There is quite a pr- your guidance implies quite a pronounced EBIT improvement in H2 versus H1. I was... I'm curious, what are your volume expectations for Q, for the second half? What, what progress do you anticipate on the OpEx side? Have you al- maybe also considered the implementation of short-time work? Does your guidance include further one-off effects in H2?
That's the first part of my question.
Thank you, Mr. Karas. As always, very detailed, and this was the first part, so let me start with the 4 questions that I have heard. First one was with regard to the EBIT expectation. Yes, we are working on, as I mentioned, short-term measures, cost improvements, which we are have implemented, which will have an effect, obviously, in the second half of the year. We expect, therefore, a certain OpEx improvement as well. Your third question, yes, we are thinking about short-time work as well. The volumes improvement, as we have closed seven days before half year, our deal with COSCO, with CSPL, we are expecting as well some slight improvements on the volume side, coming from from this new, from this new participation.
This is maybe explaining why we are giving ourselves ambitious targets and believing that we have implemented the right tools to live up to this ambitious level. Again, a clear focus on cost cutting, clear focus on review of projects which have not an immediate contribution to cost efficiency, as well as further labor efficiency that we are looking at.
Also one-offs included in your guidance for H2?
One-offs are included as well, yes.
Can you quantify?
No.
the underlying H2 expectation?
No, no, no, I know. I, I, we have given the guideline and which we are sticking to the guideline.
Okay. The second question relates to your logistics division. The segment report reveals a very high investment sum of EUR 80 million, which is quite unusual for that division. Maybe you can shed some light on that.
In the logistics subgroup, we have a company which is focusing on the rental and leasing of railway stocks. That's our Serc company. This company, obviously, if you are renting out and leasing out equipment, needs the equipment to buy before. That's that's the explanation.
Okay. That's not... May I ask, why is it not included into the model? Because, I mean, that is, I assume, the company that is deploying the rolling stock.
It's not only the intermodal company, Maersk, who is deploying the asset. That's why it is in the logistic group. It's third party business.
Okay. Lastly, just a technical question relates to your tax rate. On a group basis, it was above 40% in H1. I know from the past that there is sometimes a quite pronounced quarterly fluctuation, but maybe you can help us with expectations for the full year.
The negative effects, here in Germany, will, in the overall year end, reduce this tax rate significantly.
Okay. Thank you.
Pleasure.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is from the line of Nikolas Mauder with Kepler Cheuvreux. Your question, please.
Hi, good afternoon. I have three, and I would like to go one by one, if possible. My questions are also partially on the guidance, but also on a, on a bit lower level. Regarding your average revenues per TEU in the container segment, do you think that they have bottomed close to Q2 levels? I think your guidance somehow implies this, or asked from the bottom up, how much extra storage revenue was in the Q2 results?
Actually, I have to verify this in the number, but I think, as you mentioned, we have bottomed Q2 levels. The storage fees have two functions. They are coming from volume, and they're coming from days in the storage. We believe that the overall decline in volumes have reached the bottom, and therefore, as well, the average revenue per container. We don't have the glass ball in our hands and not knowing what the circumstances around the economic development in Europe and in the rest of the world is happening, but we believe we have bottomed what we have seen so far.
Okay, good, good to hear. Second question is on the operating cost base in container. I appreciate the disclosure on the one-offs in, in Q1, for the ship delays and for the restructuring provision release in the Q2 . What do you think is the underlying operating cost base going forward? What I'm looking at is EUR 150 million at EBITDA level for the segment. That went down to EUR 138 in the Q2 , however, including the releases there. What level should we look at going forward on a quarterly basis?
Well, that's difficult to say. We have different measures in place, or we want to put them into place, right? One is, obviously, short labor. So that we are looking short-time work, I'm sorry, short-time work that we, we want to implement. Actually, we are discussing even further measurements with our unions. That's a little bit difficult to say. That depends a little bit on the success and the immediate implementation timeframe. Obviously, that we are very ambitious in this part, but it's too easy to say, you know, which level we will, we will, level out.
If I may follow up on this one, what's the timeline for the introduction of the measures, especially if, yeah, if they have to be negotiated with the unions?
Well, as we, we are already before Einigungsstelle. I don't know the English expression, because it's a very special one.
Mm-hmm.
As we are already before Einigungsstelle, we are expecting a short-term solution there.
Okay. Then finally, after the CSPL COSCO stake has been, has been sold, how should we think about the minorities line going forward now that we not only have the Hapag-Lloyd earnings, but also the COSCO earnings?
Well, you always should think positively about minorities. In this term, this minority is not a governing minority, you know? The if, if our earnings... The, basically, it's a financial participation, and therefore, whatever, the, result of CTT will be in the future, 24.99% will be the share that we are, basically paying out to CSPL.
All right. I'll get come back after the Q3 . Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a final reminder, if there are any further questions, please press star and one at this time. Seems like there are no further questions, and I hand back to Angela Titzrath for closing comments.
All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for your questions as well, ladies and gentlemen. For HHLA only, a sustainable logistics network can meet the growing demands. We will therefore continue to focus on our strategy based on sustainability and work even harder to overcome the current challenges in order to emerge from this crisis stronger. Thank you very much for your interest and your ongoing support for HHLA. Please stay healthy and take care. Goodbye.