Container-line Hapag-Lloyd reported a 13.1% year over year improvement in 2Q 2019 revenues. That was driven mostly by better shipping rates – volume growth was just 1.7% – which resulted in an improvement in profitability to 11.0% at the EBITDA line from 7.3% a year earlier. An expansion in volumes is unlikely to help later in the year due to “active capacity reduction in intra-Asia trade” according to the company’s outlook. While the U.S.-China trade war wasn’t mentioned specifically in Hapag Lloyd’s outlook, Panjiva data shows Hapag-Lloyd’s China-to-U.S. volumes fell by 11.9% year over...





