K+N maintains steady course in 2021
The figures speak for themselves - most logistics services providers cannot help achieving excellent results due to or despite the current supply chain disruptions. The Swiss logistics group Kuehne & Nagel International's growth continued strongly in Q3/2021.
From January till September 2021, the group witnessed a rise of its turnover to CHF 21.8 billion, almost doubling the results of the same period last year (+47). The group's ebit was 131% higher than in the same period of last year, amounting to CHF 1.83 billion.
At 3.4 million teu, container volumes in maritime shipping, K+N's core business, in the first nine months of 2021 were slightly above the prior-year period. The recent acquisition in the air freight sector payed off: air freight volumes increased by around 50%, to 1.6 million t, of which around 20% can be attributed to the new affiliate, Chinese air freight forwarder Apex.
While road logistics is coming on stronger, but still hardly pays back (net turnover of CHF 2.7 billion, ebit doubling to CHF 75 million), the contract logistics division generated a lower net turnover of CHF 3.4 billion than in the first nine months of 2020, but profitability improved, its ebit rising to CHF 114 million, "due to the divestment of UK activities at the beginning of the year", as K+N put it in a press release. Despite this strong performance, Kuehne + Nagel’s shares performed a fleet-footed dance on the stock market. (sh)