DHL Group intends to focus more on express air shipments using an integrator business model and will target verticals including life sciences and healthcare.
Speaking about the future of express in its fourth quarter 2024 earnings call, Group chief executive Tobias Meyer said that cargo performed particularly well in the business segment and the Group had observed an integrator "opportunity".
Referencing the Group’s fourth quarter and full-year presentation document, he said: "You see historically that Express, the integrator business model has taken share from the carrier forwarder model, and we would, as others, expect that to continue.
"The Express model is suited to handle certain cargo much better than the carrier forwarder model. And it is very perceivable that in sectors like Life Sciences & Healthcare, you will have more smaller, higher-value shipments and thereby a natural shift into the sweet spot of the integrator model.
"That’s what we see as an opportunity and that we will continue to work on, especially with our cross-divisional initiative on Life Sciences & Healthcare, which will get us more cargo control and will enable us to leverage our fantastic Express network to a greater extent also in that sector.”
In the presentation document, DHL explained that air express growth is outpacing general air cargo growth and will continue to do so in the future.
"Express carriers have outpaced overall air cargo growth due to the higher flexibility, reliability and speed of their door-to-door services to handle B2B as well as premium B2C shipments," said DHL.
"Airfreight volumes have been more volatile across cyclical swings and therefore seen a stronger recovery in recent quarters. Nevertheless, external forecasts confirm expectations that air express will in the longer run continue to grow stronger than air cargo."
Commenting on the peak season in particular, Meyer said that cargo performed particularly well in the express segment of the business.
"We delivered what we think was a great peak season across all divisions, not only from a financial point of view, but also from a quality point of view and had also very targeted yield and cost measures, especially in express, the cargo mix was really working out very well for us and that led to a strong finish,” said Meyer.
DHL reported an 8.1% year-on-year rise in airfreight volumes to 468,000 tons in the fourth quarter, while airfreight volumes for 2024 were 1.8m tons, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%.
Airfreight revenues increased by 4.1% in 2024, but gross profit fell by 11.3% with lower freight rates earlier in the year putting pressure on results.
