Kuehne + Nagel’s (K+N) airfreight business has registered a strong growth in EBIT in the first nine months of 2016 despite the company seeing falls in the third quarter.
Airfreight earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose by 8.9 per cent to 220 million Swiss francs ($222 million) in the first nine months of 2016, with volumes increasing 2.2 per cent. Airfreight turnover dipped from 4.1 billion in the first nine months of 2015 to 3.9 billion this year.
K+N says: “The global airfreight market remained tense in the third quarter and pressure on margins continued due to shrinking demand and further capacity increases. Against this trend, Kuehne + Nagel grew its tonnage by 3.8 per cent and gross profit per 100 kilos by 1.4 per cent, mainly due to further scaling its industry-specific solutions.”
For the whole company, turnover declined 1.4 per cent to 12.2 billion Swiss francs though profits were up 4.1 per cent to 533 million Swiss francs. In the third quarter, turnover was down 2.4 per cent to 4.1 billion Swiss francs and profits dipped by 4.8 per cent to 177 million Swiss francs.
K+N chief executive officer, Dr Detlef Trefzger says: “By maintaining our Group’s focus on industry-specific logistics solutions and high-quality services, we succeeded in achieving growth and stable results despite the demanding market environment. We are confident about the business development in the fourth quarter of 2016.”
