Company announcement: Increasing traffic and important milestones for the projects

2024 saw a new traffic record on both bridges. On the Storebælt Bridge, growth was driven by HGV traffic while on the Øresund Bridge, the driver was passenger car traffic. The development in traffic made a positive contribution to the results, which exceeded projections for the year. 

On the Storebælt Bridge, HGV traffic rose by 3.0 per cent, while there was a slight fall in passenger car traffic of 0.2 per cent compared to 2023. On average, more than 37,000 vehicles crossed the link per day and road traffic set a new annual record at just under 13.7 vehicles.  Revenue from road traffic on the Storebælt Bridge totalled DKK 3,237 million and increased by 2.6 per cent compared to 2023. 

On the Øresund Bridge, passenger car traffic rose by 3.8 per cent while HGV traffic saw a rise of 1.2 per cent. Road traffic set a new annual record with 7.6 million vehicles and just under 21,000 vehicles crossed the bridge daily during the year under review.

In the interim report for Q3 2024, the outlook for the year’s result before fair value adjustments and tax was in the range of DKK 1.9-DKK 2.0 billion. The realised result is DKK 2,176 billion and is thus slightly above projections. This is due to lower-than-expected inflation and higher traffic growth in the second half year compared to the first half. 
"2024 was a particularly busy year for the major bridges, marked by the setting of several new records. August became the busiest month on record for Storebælt  with just under 1.4 million vehicles and on both bridges, the annual record was broken. Combined with low inflation, traffic contributed to the year’s satisfactory result, which has exceeded our expectations,” says Mikkel Hemmingsen, CEO, Sund & Bælt.

The construction of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel between Denmark and Germany reached several milestones in 2024. The focus of the project has shifted from the construction of the world’s largest concrete production plant in Rødbyhavn to a more industrial phase where production of the tunnel elements is now the main activity going forward. 

After some delay, the last of the four custom-built vessels that will handle the immersion of the tunnel elements, arrived at the construction site at the end of the year. The contractor is currently carrying out a number of tests in preparation for the immersion of the first tunnel element in 2025. The scheduled opening in 2029 is significantly challenged. All efforts are therefore being put into optimising the immersion and installation processes and the schedule will be reassessed once the first tunnel elements have been immersed.

A milestone was also reached regarding the roll-out of the kilometre-based and CO2-differentiated road tolls for HGVs in Denmark of 12 tonnes. After several years of intense preparations, the scheme was successfully implemented as planned on 1 January 2025. Sund & Bælt provides the technical solutions for both collecting and monitoring road tolls.  

The group’s net financing expenses increased by DKK 59 million compared to 2023 and amount to DKK 719 million. The increase is primarily attributable to the indexation of inflation-indexed debt, which in itself resulted in higher interest expenses. The result for the year before fair value adjustment and tax, including the share from Øresundsbro Konsortiet, is a profit of DKK 2,176 million, which is a rise of DKK 24 million compared to 2023. 

The result after tax is a profit of DKK 1,100 million, which is a rise of DKK 117 million compared to 2023. 

For A/S Storebælt, this year’s result means that the company will repay DKK 0.3 billion of the interest-bearing net debt, which amounts to DKK 15.9 billion at the end of 2024.  The repayment period has increased by one year to 37 years from the time of opening. The extension is largely attributable to the Eurovignette directive, which means that the savings from using automatic payment from 2025 may not exceed 13 per cent of the list price.  The debt is expected to be repaid in 2035. 

The outlook for the result for 2025 is a profit before fair value adjustments and tax within the range of DKK 1.8-2.1 billion. The outlook is based on an assumption of falling traffic revenue of 3.8 per cent due to the Eurovignette directive, the introduction of kilometre-based road tolls for HGVs as well as 2.0 per cent inflation. 

View full annual report (in Danish) English version will be published on 25 April