"Given the market environment, we are satisfied with the financial results in 2017, especially because we at the same time completed the integration of the businesses of Hapag-Lloyd and United Arab Shipping Company," said CEO Rolf Habben Jansen.

"The successful merger with UASC has significantly strengthened our competitive position. We also benefited from improved freight rates and a positive development of the worldwide container transport volume," he said.

Volume increased 29 per cent to 9.8 million TEU (2016: 7.6 million TEU), driven by the merger with UASC and a healthy underlying organic volume growth.

Transport expenses increased 25.5 per cent to EUR8 billion (2016: EUR6.4 billion), because of higher volumes and an increased average bunker consumption price of US$318 per tonne (2016: $226/tonne).

"Looking ahead, we will continue to further reduce our debt. In addition to that, we want to capture all possible synergies from the merger with UASC and become even more efficient," said Mr Habben Jansen.

"The market environment remains challenging, but as we see some of the fundamentals improving gradually over the upcoming period, we remain cautiously optimistic," he said.

In its most recent economic outlook, the IMF expects global economic growth to reach 3.9 per cent overall and global trade volume to increase by 4.6 per cent in 2018.

Hapag-Lloyd expects an increasing demand for container shipping services, and year-on-year volume will also grow due to the inclusion of UASC's business activities for the whole year.