Kuehne + Nagel delivers outstanding financial performance amid constrained supply chains

Rising worldwide demand for transport and a focus on pharma and e-commerce fulfilment saw Kuehne + Nagel more than double its earnings in the first half of 2021.

The continued recovery of the global economy led to strong demand for logistics services in the first half of 2021, the company reported.

All business units significantly exceeded prior year earnings.

At 13.3 billion CHF (approx. €12.3 billion), the Group’s net turnover for the first six months of 2021 was 35 per cent higher than in the same period of last year while EBIT more than doubled to 1.0 billion CHF (approx. €923,079,148).

“This year, we are experiencing uniquely high consumer demand combined with supply chain uncertainty,” said Kuehne + Nagel International CEO, Detlef Trefzger.

“Thanks to the tireless efforts of our employees, a successfully implemented strategy and our agile logistics solutions, we have once again met the increased service requirements of our customers in a challenging market environment. We expect demand to remain strong and look forward with confidence to continuing the positive development.”

In Road Logistics, the first half of 2021 was characterised by a significant increase in the number of shipments, maximising network utilisation. Kuehne + Nagel continued to accept a rising number of customer orders in European less-than-truckload networks, with no degradation of high service quality especially.

The business unit’s net turnover in the first half of 2021 was 1.8 billion CHF and EBIT more than doubled to 54 million CHF compared to the same period last year.

The digital customs clearance platform “Your Easy Brexit Solution,” originally designed for Brexit, was rolled out further in Q2 2021 due to its great success and is now available to manage customs clearance globally. In Asia-Pacific, digital bookings via eTrucknow experienced strong growth. This platform is now available in 18 countries worldwide.

In the first half of 2021, Contract Logistics managed to expand its business with strong growth of pharma and e-commerce fulfilment solutions. These two segments alone accounted for approximately 80 per cent of customer wins.

Due to the divestment of parts of the UK contract logistics portfolio in January 2021, net turnover of 2.2 billion CHF in the first half of 2021 was slightly below the prior-year period. EBIT improved by 60 per cent to 72 million CHF.

In the first half of the year, Contract Logistics opened several highly automated facilities including new distribution centres for the semiconductor and consumer goods industries.

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