Panalpina expects the air cargo market to grow by 2-3 percent in 2014.
The Panalpina Group reported an EBIT of 48 million Swiss francs (US$54 million) for 2013, which is more than double the 2012 result.
The company’s airfreight volumes grew slightly at 3 percent in 2013.
“We recovered from 2012 and gained market share in a low-growth environment in 2013,” Panalpina CEO Peter Ulber said. “I am happy to state that we outperformed the market in both air and oceanfreight. But there is still a lot of room for profitability improvements, especially in logistics and oceanfreight.”
Panalpina transported 825,100 tonnes of air cargo in 2013, up from 801,400 tonnes in 2012. Gross profit per tonne decreased 2 percent, which the company said was because of rate increases, particularly during peak season of the fourth quarter.
This led to a slight expansion of airfreight gross profit to 631.4 million Swiss francs ($US711.5 million), supported by double-digit gross profit growth of the oil and gas and projects business as well as the automotive and manufacturing business.
Meanwhile, Panalpina’s oceanfreight volumes grew 8 percent year over year.
“In 2014, we will focus on stabilizing our performance in airfreight and improving productivity and operating margin in oceanfreight,” Ulber said.