C.H. Robinson profits surge

C.H. Robinson profits surge    C.H. Robinson, the Minneapolis-based trucking and multimodal logistics provider, said Tuesday “high demand for our services in the marketplace,” enabled a 43.7 percent jump in first quarter net income to $42 million.
   Operating income during the quarter also increased 43.7 percent to $68 million, compared to $47 million in the year-earlier period. Revenues increased 28 percent to $1.2 billion from $946 million.
   Transportation gross profits increased 34 percent to $174 million from $130 million. Gross profit for the truck transportation business improved 36.4 percent to $154 million primarily from growth in both truckload and less-than-truckload transactions. Intermodal gross profit dropped 7 percent to $7 million from $7.5 million, due to a decrease in volumes impacted by increased costs, service lane elimination’s, and regional service disruptions that is driving business back to truck service, C.H. Robinson said.
   Combined air and ocean gross profits increased 37 percent to $8.3 million. Commenting on the growth in the ocean sector, C.H. Robinson said: “This growth includes the impacts of our June 2004 expansion into China and growth in volumes with several of our large international customers.”