DB Schenker saw its revenues and operating profits rapidly increase in the first half of the year despite a decline in volumes.
The company, which was the strongest performing division in the Deutsche Bahn (DB) Group, reported a 35.8% year-on-year increase in total sales to €14.2bn in the first half and earnings before interest and tax (ebit) improved by 91.3% to €1.2bn.
These improvements came despite the forwarder registering a 5.4% drop off in first-half airfreight volumes to 673,300 tonnes and a decline of 3.4% in ocean freight volumes to 966,200 TEU.
The company said that the volume declines were down to supply chain disruption, covid restrictions in Asia and the war in Ukraine.
Also, 2022 did not benefit from the post-Covid bounceback that affected the market in 2021.
Revenues and profits benefited from higher freight rates and exchange rate effects.
The results mirror those of DSV and Kuehne+Nagel, which also reported weak volumes when the impact of acquisitions are stripped out, and higher revenues and profits.
The results of DB Schenker helped propel the overall DB Group back to profit for the first time since the outbreak of Covid.
DB closed out the first half of 2022 with adjusted ebit of €876m. Group revenues increased by 28.4% to roughly €28bn.
Chief financial officer Levin Holle said: "The first half of 2022 was Schenker's most successful half-year in its 150-year history as a logistics company.
"DB Schenker played a major role in bolstering the DB's favorable performance overall."
