On the basis of the Rules of Ljubljana Stock Exchange and the Financial Instruments Market Act RS, Luka Koper d.d. publishes the Non-audited Report on the Performance of Luka Koper d.d. and Luka Koper Group in January – June 2021.

Higher throughput, higher revenues, and better financial indicators

In the first half of 2021, Luka Koper Group achieved good business results. Almost all financial indicators show better results than planned, and also compared to the same period of last year. The growth of total throughput was mainly driven by both strategic cargo groups, containers and cars. The percentage of growth in the car and the container segment was among the highest compared to selected European ports.

Table: Throughput in selected European ports

Source: publicly available data from Port Authorities

Compared to the previous year, the transhipment of liquid cargo decreased, mostly because of reduced jet fuel consumption in the aviation industry and, consequently, lower volume of transhipment of petroleum products as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, a minor decrease in the throughput of thermal coal is a result of decarbonization trends in Europe.

Table: Maritime throughput in Port of Koper

The increase in throughput has stimulated growth of net sales revenues from marketing activities which reached EUR 111.1 million, or 8% more than in the same period last year. Operating profit (EBIT) amounted to EUR 17.7 million, which is 3% more, mainly due to higher net sales revenues, with a positive effect on the Group's net profit, which amounted to EUR 15.4 million in the period January – June 2021, 2% more than in the comparable period last year.

In the first half of the year, the Port of Koper completed and handed over some major and strategically important investments, such as a new garage house for cars, a new entrance for trucks, the extension of the operational shore of the Container terminal and the purchase of terminal equipment. In this period, it allocated more than 30 million euros for all investments, which is 84 percent more than in the comparable period in 2020.

The company estimates that it will achieve the planned business indicators for 2021. The assessment is based on forecasts of economic growth in key markets and the fact that with higher vaccination against Covid-19 in the world, it will have less and less impact on the economy and commodity flows. Occasionally there are still disruptions, especially in container traffic, but on the other hand ship arrival schedules have stabilized, which was a major challenge in the first half of the year. A positive trend is expected to continue also regarding cars and bulk cargo handling.