CEO Monika Ribar noted, “We managed to gain market shares. We did better than the market not only in ocean freight but also in air freight where the market declined further in the second quarter of 2012. In ocean freight, the carrier’s steep rate increases on important routes caused margin headwinds but thanks to our record volumes we could still increase the division’s gross profit.”
Net forwarding revenue in the second quarter went up by 2.4 percent to CHF 1,668 million. Gross profit in the second quarter almost reached the previous-year level. It came in at CHF 363 million (-2 percent) despite a globally receding air freight market and several rate increases by ocean carriers.
Continued growth in Latin America led to a new second quarter and half year gross profit record of CHF 43 million or +7.5 percent. The sluggish development of the global economy was reflected in the other regions’ performance. Gross profit in Asia Pacific decreased to CHF 75 million (-3.8 percent) due to slowing exports to mature markets. In the EMEA region strong exports could only partly offset weak imports resulting in a decrease of gross profit to CHF 179 million (-2.2 percent). In a weak environment, gross profit also decreased in North America to CHF 66 million (-5.7 percent).
The Group’s gross profit margin decreased to 21.8 percent in the second quarter (22.8 percent in Q2 2011) mainly due to the rate increases by ocean carriers but remained stable at 22.7 percent for the first half.