Expeditors reports 33% drop in profit

Expeditors reports 33% drop in profit    Expeditors International of Washington Inc. said it had third quarter net profit of $57.8 million, down 33 percent from the $85.6 million for the same quarter of 2008.
   Revenue for the quarter ending Sept. 30 was $1.04 billion down 34 percent from the $1.56 billion reported for the year earlier quarter.

Rose

   'There certainly were significant challenges during the latter part of this quarter as both air and ocean carriers imposed capacity reductions in order to implement very aggressive price increases,' said Peter J. Rose, chairman and chief executive officer. 'While we wouldn't call it 'the perfect freight storm,' the rapidity of these carrier moves created a pricing environment that resulted in our experiencing single-digit air freight yields out of Asia during the first several weeks of September. Ocean yields were also significantly impacted. Market conditions required that we absorb these increases for several weeks as we worked with customers to raise rates in a commercially acceptable manner.
   'On a more positive note, however, year-over-year declines in freight volumes for the month of September (as compared to September 2008), were at the lowest levels we've experienced all year. Air freight tonnage was down 6 percent while ocean freight container counts were down 17 percent. Lower yields aside, it was somewhat reassuring to experience freight volumes that, while albeit still negative, seemed to be moving in the right direction,' Rose said.