Panalpina reports sharp drop in earnings

Panalpina reports sharp drop in earnings    Panalpina said it had first quarter consolidated net income of 1.9 million Swiss francs ($1.7 million) compared to 32.2 million Swiss francs ($28.3 million) in the same 2009 period.
   Net forwarding revenue for the period was nearly 2 billion Swiss franc ($1.8 billion), down from 2.6 billion francs ($2.2 billion) in the first quarter of 2008.
   “The massive recession-related global volume decline seen since the end of 2008 has impacted Panalpina on all major trade lanes and had negative effects on the results in the first quarter,” said Monika Ribar, chief executive officer. “However, with the cost-cutting program on track and an excellent cash flow performance, Panalpina is well equipped to tackle the challenges in an ongoing difficult business climate.”
   The company said “transport volumes have taken a further step down since the beginning of the year. All trade lanes were affected,” with ocean freight TEUs down 23 percent and air freight tonnage down 28 percent.
   “Volumes experienced sharp declines mainly due to the fact that many big companies among its customer portfolio have suffered above-average order and production cutbacks. This was particularly the case within the automotive and high-tech industry which severely affected Panalpina's volumes on the transatlantic and transpacific trade lanes,” the company said.