German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd has reported a more than tenfold rise in profits over the past nine months, citing record freight rates amid scarce transport capacity and robust demand. The world’s fifth-biggest operator said in a Nov. 12 earnings report that net profit climbed to $6.41 billion in the nine months between January and September 2021, up from $616 million in the comparable period in 2020. The company attributed the surge in profits mostly to higher freight rates driven by “persistently high demand for container transport” coupled with scarce transport capacity. Average freight rates have jumped 66 percent to $1,818 per 20-foot equivalent standard container units (TEU) in the January-September 2021 period compared to the same period last year. “Despite all the operational challenges, we achieved an extraordinary strong nine-month result,” Rolf Habben Jansen, CEO of Hapag-Lloyd, said in a statement, in which he added that global supply chains remain “under enormous …