Kuehne + Nagel reports profits up

Kuehne + Nagel reports profits up    Kuehne + Nagel said it had first quarter net profit of 132 million Swiss Francs ($123.5 million), a 2.3 percent increase over the same 2009 period.
   Turnover was CHF 4.6 billion ($4.3 billion), up 7.3 percent over the same 2009 period.
   The Swiss forwarder and logistics company said, “the global sea freight business experienced a turnaround in the first quarter of 2010 with the market growing 12 percent and its own container volume increasing 17 percent, gaining market share in many trade lanes. The highest growth was recorded in the export business to China and on all export routes from Asia.' But continued rate increases put profit margins under further pressure, it added.
   “In the international air freight business the situation improved even more clearly,” the company said. “While the first quarter of the 2009 crisis year was marked by a double-digit slump in tonnage, the market saw a double-digit increase in the first three months of 2010.”
Kuehne + Nagel recorded a 31 percent rise in tonnage, benefiting from “increased investments in sales, its innovative air freight products and, not least, from capacity induced shifts from sea to air freight,” it said.

Lange

   The European road transport market “was characterized by volume growth under sustained pricing pressure and fierce competition” in the first quarter, and that “economic recovery was also felt in contract logistics, albeit hesitantly,” the company said.
   'Our group is back on course for growth thanks to the economic recovery and measures we introduced in 2009,” said Reinhard Lange, chief executive officer of Kuehne + Nagel. “Indications are getting stronger that the global economy and logistics-related parameters are stabilizing.”