HHLA, Hamburg’s biggest container stevedore, said it will cut working hours for more than 2,000 employees on Monday, June 29, in response to a collapse in cargo volumes at Europe’s second largest box hub.
Other leading German port companies have shortened hours for thousands of workers in the past month, including Eurogate, Europe’s biggest container terminal handler, and BLG, the biggest automotive stevedore, after traffic in Hamburg and Bremen/Bremerhaven slumped by as much as 25 percent in the first quarter compared with a year ago.
HHLA said hours will be cut by between 10 percent and 100 percent and 450 of the 2,000 workers affected will take part in training programs.
HHLA has applied for funding for two years from the government’s kurzarbeit scheme which subsidies short-time work.
The company, which employs 3,500 workers, has assured labor unions there will be no permanent layoffs and that the short-time measures will help preserve between 250 and 300 jobs that were threatened.
HHLA has been harder hit by the global cargo slump than other German stevedores because its key markets, which have contributed to its disproportionate growth in recent years – the Asia-Europe trade, feeder services to Russia and the Baltic states and hinterland traffic to Central and Eastern Europe – are suffering above average declines.
Container traffic at HHLA’s Hamburg and Odessa, Ukraine, terminals fell 32 percent in the first quarter from a year ago to 1.25 million TEUs. Its intermodal unit saw rail and truck traffic decline 16.6 percent to 366,439 TEUs.
Earnings before tax and interest slumped by 42 percent in the first quarter to $69 million from $126 million in same period in 2008 on revenue down 20 percent at $349 million.
HHLA expects a double digit decline in box traffic for the full year, but Chief Executive Klaus-Dieter Peters says the company has sufficient financial strength to weather the global economic crisis and will not post a loss in 2009.
Other leading German port companies have shortened hours for thousands of workers in the past month, including Eurogate, Europe’s biggest container terminal handler, and BLG, the biggest automotive stevedore, after traffic in Hamburg and Bremen/Bremerhaven slumped by as much as 25 percent in the first quarter compared with a year ago.
HHLA said hours will be cut by between 10 percent and 100 percent and 450 of the 2,000 workers affected will take part in training programs.
HHLA has applied for funding for two years from the government’s kurzarbeit scheme which subsidies short-time work.
The company, which employs 3,500 workers, has assured labor unions there will be no permanent layoffs and that the short-time measures will help preserve between 250 and 300 jobs that were threatened.
HHLA has been harder hit by the global cargo slump than other German stevedores because its key markets, which have contributed to its disproportionate growth in recent years – the Asia-Europe trade, feeder services to Russia and the Baltic states and hinterland traffic to Central and Eastern Europe – are suffering above average declines.
Container traffic at HHLA’s Hamburg and Odessa, Ukraine, terminals fell 32 percent in the first quarter from a year ago to 1.25 million TEUs. Its intermodal unit saw rail and truck traffic decline 16.6 percent to 366,439 TEUs.
Earnings before tax and interest slumped by 42 percent in the first quarter to $69 million from $126 million in same period in 2008 on revenue down 20 percent at $349 million.
HHLA expects a double digit decline in box traffic for the full year, but Chief Executive Klaus-Dieter Peters says the company has sufficient financial strength to weather the global economic crisis and will not post a loss in 2009.