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Panalpina Earnings Fall
November 5, 2009By Bruce Barnard
Panalpina, the Swiss global logistics and freight forwarding group, reported a sharp drop in third quarter earnings but said it boosted ocean and air freight market share on key trade lanes.
Earnings before interest and tax fell to $10.7 million in the three months to Sept. 30 from $57.2 million a year ago while net forwarding revenue shrunk to $1.4 billion from $2.36 billion.
Air cargo traffic rose 10 percent from the previous quarter and ocean freight by 13 percent but on a year-to-year basis were down by 25 percent and 18 percent respectively, the Basel-based company said.
Nine month earnings fell to $40.7 million from $163 million and net forwarding revenue dipped to $4.3 billion from $6.5 billion in the same period in 2008.
“As the numbers in the nine month comparison show, the market environment remains extremely weak,” said chief executive officer Monika Ribar.
Panalpina said that while many trade lanes remain weak it has gained air market share on trans-Pacific routes and ocean market share on the Asia-Europe trade, its most important shipping market.
Gross profit after deducting freight rates, customs duties and other levies slipped to $328 million in the third quarter from $438 million a year ago largely because the company could not fully pass on significantly higher freight rates to shippers.
Panalpina, which has trimmed its workforce by around 11 percent, said it is on track to achieve planned operating cost cuts of $134 million by the end of the year.
In a bid to boost revenue Panalpina increased its sales focus on small and medium sized shippers to achieve a better customer mix. It also appointed a Global Head of Sales reporting directly to the firm’s executive board.
The Panprojects group, focused on industrial project cargo, is based in
Tags: logistics and freight forwarding, Panalpina, Panprojects, project cargo
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