Following a seasonally weak first quarter, Hapag-Lloyd achieved a turnaround in the second quarter of 2012, improving its result by more than EUR 125 million compared to Q1. This was primarily due to the rate increases successfully implemented by the Company, which started to become effective in the second quarter. The weighted average freight rate rose by 7.4% in Q2 2012, taking it to USD 1,594/TEU. This was USD 110/TEU higher than in the first quarter and USD 63/TEU up on Q2 2011. The transport volume totalled 1.36 million TEU in the three months to June – approximately 2% higher than in the same period of last year. Hapag-Lloyd also recorded a sharp increase in revenue, which amounted to around EUR 1.8 billion in the second quarter, a growth of some 21% on Q2 2011.