Logistics giant Kuehne+Nagel (K+N) saw airfreight tonnage increase by 16% to 1.3m tonnes in the first nine months of 2018, well above market growth, with major contributions from industry-specific end-to-end solutions.
Detlef Trefzger, chief executive of K+N International, said: “Kuehne+Nagel has continued its dynamic performance from the first half of the year into the third quarter and achieved a very positive result for the first nine months of 2018. The performance in the business units sea freight, airfreight and overland is remarkable.”
The Switzerland-based multimodal freight forwarder said the recent acquisition of Panatlantic’s business, a perishables airfreight specialist in Ecuador, helped it continue to strengthen its network in this segment after successfully completing the integration of CFI Commodity Forwarders, the leading perishables provider in the US.
Airfreight EBIT was up 19.4% against the same period in the previous year at CHF271m. The conversion rate remained high at 30.3%.
In seafreight, K+N increased the volume by 8.8% to 3.5m teu over the first nine months of 2018, growing twice as fast as the market. A substantial amount of new business was gained with digital end-to-end solutions, with high demand on the market for the two digital platforms KN ESP and SeaExplorer, launched in 2018.
US intermodal business drove strong overland growth, with only contract logistics’ results “negatively affected by investments in the operation platform, which have been made according to plan in this year.” Key milestones in contract logistics were reached with the successful launch of a new digital warehouse management system and leading digital end-to-end solutions.
The group significantly increased EBIT and earnings for the period. Net turnover rose 13. 6% to CHF15.3bn, with gross profit up 11.7% to CHF5.7bn compared to January-September 2017.
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