Kuhne+Nagel says further consolidation to come
Speaking shortly after announcing the company’s second-quarter results and the acquisition of two perishables forwarders, chief executive Detlef Trefzger said that K+N’s market share in the sector was “extremely low” and added that the sector was fragmented.
He said that specialist forwarders in the sector would also be looking at their options as they require access to global markets in order to meet shifting demands. Perishable shippers are also increasingly requiring complex logistics solutions, which require investment in targeted products.
For these reasons he is expecting further consolidation in the market.
“The perishables market is growing and therefore there will be other targets out there we will look at and will for sure try to complement our network where we feel we need additions and can’t build it as fast, reliably and organically ourselves,” he said.
Trefzger also revealed that Commodity Forwarders will add around $200m to K+N’s revenues each year and that the two deals would increase volumes by around 10%.
Demand growth set to continue
During the quarter the company also registered record quarterly airfreight demand of 381,000 tonnes, up by more than 20% on a year earlier, while the overall market improved by around 10%.
Trefzger said there were four reasons for this improvement: ongoing consumer demand, e-commerce demand, a shift from seafreight to airfreight given service disruption caused by port congestion, carrier bankruptcy and the creation of new shipping alliances and K+N’s focus on industry specific solutions.
Looking forward, he expects airfreight demand growth to remain strong, although perhaps not at the levels seen so far this year.
“Can the market continue with double digit growth of more than 10%?,” he asked, “We all have a bit of doubt, but a normalized growth of 6-8% could be expected in the years to come.”
source: aircargonews.net
