KN is on course - only air freight falls behind
Kuehne + Nagel defied the economic slowdown and improved its results in most of its sectors of activity in the first nine months of 2019. Compared to the same period in 2018, the group’s net sales rose by 3.1% to CHF 15.8 billion, gross profit increased by 4.4% to CHF 6 billion, ebit climbed by 6.6% to CHF 794 million and net profit grew by 3.1% to CHF 598 million. Organic net sales growth amounted to 4.3%.
With an increase of 7.3% to CHF 5.6 billion, sea freight achieved a solid improvement in net sales and was able to upgrade its performance yet again in the third quarter. KN showed significant growth in a stagnating global market and carried 3.67 million teu, or 152,000 units (+4.3%) more than in the same period of 2018.
Due to sharply falling demand in some key industries, KN’s air freight volumes dropped by 6.4% compared to the previous-year period and clocked in at 1.22 million t. Net sales in overland transport rose by 2% to CHF 2.7 billion and gross profit increased by 4.1% to CHF 846 million. (mw)