Swiss logistics firm Panalpina said it expects the airfreight market to grow by 3 to 4 percent this year, as it presented its 2014 results this week.
The multi-modal firm increased its operating profit from US75.5 million in 2013 to US$116.2 million last year, reducing its logistics losses to a greater degree than expected. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose from US49.8 million in 2013 to US$121.4 million last year. Net revenue from forwarding activity stayed roughly the same, at US$6.95 billion, while gross profit climbed by 2 percent to US$1.65 billion.
“In 2014, we executed on our clearly laid out strategy,” said Panalpina CEO Peter Ulber. “We are satisfied with the achieved growth in airfreight and particularly pleased with the turnaround in logistics. All in all, it was a successful year. With plenty yet to do, all eyes are now on 2015.”
Last year, Panalpina saw a 3.9 percent volume increase for airfreight, to about 857,800 tonnes, which was nearly half a percentage point higher than the 3.5 percent global average. Airfreight generated about 40 percent of Panalpina’s group gross profit.
“From an industry perspective, the main growth drivers were technology and perishables,” the company said. “Major trunk lanes, such as the transatlantic trade lane, experienced a revival, whereas the growth of secondary lanes such as Asia to Latin America slowed down.”
Despite the overall increase in belly capacity across the industry, Panalpina predicted that cargo rates will “stay the same or even increase in selected trade lanes.”
“Given the record low oil price, we expect some headwinds in oil and gas exploration and production activities, but this would also create opportunities in re-engineering supply chains end-to-end and outsourcing,” Ulber said.