Kuehne+Nagel ramps up volumes

Zurich - The world’s biggest ocean freight forwarder Kuehne + Nagel has bolstered its leading position with a strong increase in business volumes in the first six months of 2014. The Swiss-based group today announced an 8% increase in the number of container shipments it booked and managed, twice as high as the market growth rate so far this year, it said.

Almost 1.9M TEU of cargo was handled. K+N also lifted its pre-tax result by 8.2% to CHF396M ($444.83M), but the improvement was driven by rising earnings from air freight, road, and contract logistics solutions, not from ocean freight.

Adverse currency developments and reduced profit margins per container saw K+N’s gross profit from ocean freight sales decline by 2.1% to CHF645M and its division pre-tax profit drop by 4.6% to CHF188M. The average gross profit per TEU was down 10% year-on-year to CHF327 in the second quarter.

(Source: Sea-web)