The Power 25: Kuehne+Nagel reclaims top spot despite low volumes

Movement of air cargo over the past year has been somewhat flat amid falling rates and increased capacity industrywide, despite experts predicting a more positive initial outlook. Forwarder hesitancy had no noticeable impact on overall revenues, however, and the 2022 rankings of the top forwarders for the 2022 Power 25 rankings remained similar to those of 2021. While 2022 looked like it might take an upward turn after a disappointing 2021 performance, airfreight did not perform as expected during the year’s peak season, falling 8% below 2021 cargo tonne kilometers, according to IATA. This spurred freight forwarders to adopt a “wait and see” approach in terms of capacity as volumes dipped continually throughout the year, according to Xeneta. The tonnage and revenue figures used in the Power 25 ranking are based on a combination of Air Cargo Next research and data from Armstrong & Associates . See the 2022 Power 25 rankings [caption id="attachment_57137253" align="alignnone" width="1024"] (Graph/Xeneta)[/caption] Kuehne+Nagel retains top spot Despite a downward trend in volumes and a sluggish post-pandemic market, Kuehne+Nagel topped the Air Cargo Next Power 25 list of freight forwarders for a third year in a row. The Swiss-based logistics firm managed to do so with just 0.54% more tonnage moved in 2022 than in 2021, with 2.23 million tonnes recorded by yearend, making Kuehne+Nagel one of the few forwarders to record a positive tonnage change. The company also earned $46.8 million in gross logistics revenue, an increase of 14.8% year over year. Kuehne+Nagel remains in a quiet period ahead of its second-quarter earnings report and declined to comment on its 2022 performance to Air Cargo Next. “ Being No. 1 in air logistics has never been a determining factor for us per se,” Yngve Ruud , member of the management board of Kuehne+Nagel International AG, told Air Cargo Next . “For us at Kuehne+Nagel, it is much more important that we are No. 1 in customer orientation and offer the best and most flexible airfreight products on the market.” Though the market has continued to lag into 2023, Kuehne+Nagel has been resourceful in its investments, seeking freight markets that are least impacted by economic downturns, such as perishables. This included the forwarder’s June acquisition of Morgan Cargo , a South African freight forwarder specializing in perishable goods. Morgan Cargo handled more than 40,000 tonnes of airfreight and more than 20,000 TEUs of sea freight globally in 2022. As in 2021, DHL Group , DSV , DB Schenker and Expeditors held the next four spots on the 2022 Power 25 list, in that order. DHL expects a prosperous year DHL held its position at No. 2 despite a 9.2% tonnage loss compared with 2021. The forwarder flew 1.9 million tonnes of airfreight in 2022 compared with 2.09 million tonnes in 2021. Nevertheless, DHL increased its 2022 revenue by 20.9% to $45.5 million compared with $37.7 million in 2021. “B2B volumes — impacted by the inventory cycle and macro situation — continued to soften in Q4, with air and ocean freight sequentially declining over the course of the year,” DHL spokesperson Daniel McGrath told Air Cargo Next . “This was further amplified by customer inventory management — i.e., drawing down existing excess inventories or targeting leaner stock levels due to the cautious economic outlook and interest rate rises.” The company still managed record revenues, marked by investment in digital solutions, which target profitable growth segments requiring specialized freight solutions and sustainability. This is especially true with DHL’s GoGreen Plus campaign, an initiative launched earlier this year which allows customers to select how much sustainable aviation fuel is used for the shipment, McGrath said. “We expect B2B volumes to recover as trade flows realign with GDP development once inventories need replenishment, but we cannot predict exactly when this will take place,” McGrath said of the coming year. “At the same time, our digitalization initiatives to improve productivity; our yield management measures, ensuring cost and pricing discipline; our portfolio of sustainable transport solutions, meeting increasing demand in this space; and our investments in service excellence and customized industry services, such as our life sciences and health care services in the U.S., for example, have positioned us to perform well and target growth opportunities, even in the current challenging market conditions.” Meanwhile, Denmark-based forwarder DSV had a solid 2022 performance with a 3% increase in air tonnage and 1.55 million tonnes of airfreight flown, landing the company in the third spot of the Power 25 list. DSV had a 20.3% increase in total revenue, hitting $34.8 million compared with $28.9 million in 2021. The uncertainty of the market heading into 2023 was expected by the company, given downward trending volumes and rates. “It goes without saying that, when we entered 2023, there was a good deal of uncertainty, as well as a lack of visibility and transparency,” DSV Chief Executive Jens Bjorn Andersen said during a Q1 earnings call in March. “And the fact that we have come up with the result we’ve announced this morning pleases the management team very much. So, we’ve had a good start to the year in a somewhat more competitive market than we are used to, caused by declining freight volumes and demand in certain sectors.” DSV remains in a quiet period ahead of its Q2 earnings report and declined to comment on its 2022 performance to Air Cargo Next. Revenue boost Two forwarders that climbed in the Power 25 rankings are France-based CEVA Logistics , under CMA CGM since 2019, and Kintetsu World Express . CEVA landed at No. 12, up two spots from 2021. The company saw a 55% increase in total logistics revenue to $18.7 million in 2022 from $12 million in 2021. CMA CGM acquired Bollore Logistics for $5.48 billion in May, expanding CEVA’s network significantly. Peter Penseel , chief operating officer for airfreight at CEVA Logistics, noted that airfreight tonnage likely won’t see an uptick in volumes until the second half of this year, following 2022’s steady decline. “At the same time, as capacity is increasing, we are likely to see inventories drop throughout the year, triggering an uptick in demand in the back half [of 2023] as restocking takes place via air, thanks to its speed to market,” Penseel said at the release of the company’s Q1 2023 results. CEVA Logistics did not respond to a request for comment about its 2022 results. Kintetsu World Express (KWE), headquartered in Tokyo, fell one spot in the Power 25 list to No. 10, though it reflected a revenue boost in 2022 to $8.7 million, an increase of 55% from $5.5 million in 2021. KWE accomplished this despite a 5% decline in air tonnage flown in 2022 to 688,823 tonnes compared with 728,534 tonnes in 2021. In November 2022, the company invested deeply into pharmaceuticals , receiving IATA’S Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) in Pharmaceutical Logistics certification for its terminal operations at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport (NRT). Sliding down Germany’s Dachser had a tougher 2022, with an air tonnage decline of 35% YoY. It moved 236,865 tonnes of cargo compared with 346,667 tonnes in 2021, and although the company managed a 7% increase in gross logistics revenue, it fell from No. 17 to No. 22 on the list. One cause might have been the loss of AirBridgeCargo from the major Asia-Europe trade lane as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The combination of a modern fleet of aircraft; flexible, yet reliable network plans; and traffic rights to and from major cargo airports is difficult to impossible to adequately compensate for,” Timo Stroh , head of global air freight at Dachser, said at the time of ABC’s shutdown Maersk makes its entrance Marking its first time on the list, Maersk ranked at No. 25, coming in far ahead of Japan’s Logisteed , which finished 26th for airfreight tonnage and revenue. Maersk moved 211,484 tonnes of airfreight and saw a total logistics revenue of $14.3 million. The Denmark-based shipping giant has made major moves into air cargo of late. It launched Maersk Air Cargo in the second half of 2022 and now has 12 Boeing 767-200s and 10 Boeing 767-300s. The transition is marked by the company’s commitment to customer needs , Maersk Chief Executive Soren Skou, said at the time of the company’s Q3 2022 earnings release. Skou is now retired. Maersk announced in 2018 that it would transform its strategy, with Skou telling analysts the company would evolve into “a global integrated container business, a company very similar to UPS and FedEx .” The company has since made numerous acquisitions and investments in technology to provide an end-to-end solution for its customers. This includes Maersk’s acquisition of Pilot Freight Services, which landed at No. 17 on the 2021 Power 25 list. In April, Maersk added two weekly flights connecting the United States and China, further expanding its reach. “We are further connecting North America and Asia Pacific through regular flights and controlled capacity for our customers,” Michel Pozas Lucic , global head of air at Maersk, said in a release at the time. “Airfreight continues to be an important asset in our customers’ end-to-end logistics needs.” Join Air Cargo Next for the second Air Cargo Tech Summit on Monday, Sept. 18, and Tuesday, Sept. 19, at the Brussels Marriott Hotel Grand Place in Belgium. For more information on the summit and to register, click here .

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