Kuehne + Nagel (K+N) outpaced a “stagnating airfreight market” to grow its own volumes by 5.1% in the first nine months of 2015.

The Switzerland-based multimodal logistics giant said of its air cargo business: “The increasing demand for specialised services in the industry segments automotive, pharma, aerospace and perishables contributed to this favourable development as did the good performance in Asia, Europe and North America.

“In comparison to the previous year the conversion rate rose from 27.5 to 30.0%. EBIT increased by 11.0%."

Detlef Trefzger, chief executive of K + N International, said: “In the third quarter we further improved our results, especially in seafreight and airfreight. The development in overland is solid and the optimisation of selective projects in contract logistics is proceeding as planned.

"Our strong focus on innovative logistics services and strict cost management enabled growth in profits in a demanding market environment. The performance in the first nine months confirms our market strategy and we see our Group on the right track.”

Major air cargo logistics players Panalpina, DHL and DB Schenker are due to report their third quarter 2015 volumes over the next three weeks.

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