Panalpina’s 1st quarter earnings rise 120%

Panalpina’s 1st quarter earnings rise 120%    Double-digit revenue growth to Swiss forwarding and logistics group Panalpina’s three core activities of air freight, ocean freight and supply chain management boosted the company’s first quarter net income by 120 percent to CHF25.6 million ($20.6 million), from CHF11.6 million a year ago.
   Net revenues rose 22 percent to CHF2.22 billion ($1.78 billion), compared to CHF1.82 billion in the first quarter 2005.
   Panalpina’s air freight turnover grew 15 percent to CHF948 million ($764.4 million). Ocean freight revenue rose 26 percent to CHF901 million ($726.5 million). Supply chain management revenue for the first quarter was up 26 percent to CHF370 million ($298.4 million).
   On a regional basis, net forwarding revenue in Asia/Pacific showed the strongest growth with a 26 percent increase to CHF218 million ($175.8 million), followed by North America, which improved by 24 percent to CHF407 million ($328.2 million). Revenue for the Europe/Africa/Middle East/CIS market improved 19 percent to CHF1.04 billion ($838.6 million) while Central and South America grew 15 percent to CHF170 million ($137.1 million).
   “Panalpina is confident that business will remain healthy throughout the year as the Asian markets will keep up their extremely strong performance and the global economic outlook remains positive. In particular, the company is convinced that it will continue to profit from gradually increasing exploration efforts in the global oil and gas sector, where Panalpina is the world market leader for specialized transport and logistics solutions,” Panalpina said in a statement.