The start of the business year 2024 was characterized by a slightly improving demand trend for transportation services in Sea and Air Logistics. Kuehne+Nagel Group's net turnover in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to CHF 5.5 billion, with an EBIT of CHF 376 million and earnings before minorities of CHF 278 million. The results were lower overall and impacted by negative exchange rate effects of 3% relative to the prior year.
The conversion rate, which describes the ratio of EBIT to gross profit for the group, stood at 18% in the first quarter of 2024, significantly higher than the pre-Covid value of 12% in the first quarter of 2019. Overall, the figures are above the corresponding pre-pandemic levels.
Stefan Paul, CEO of Kuehne+Nagel International AG: "In a challenging environment, Kuehne+Nagel started the business year 2024 with solid but lower year-over-year results. Our focus on efficiency and streamlined structures allowed us to reduce costs per unit by 12% in Sea Logistics and 14% in Air Logistics. By discontinuing the regional structure, we have laid the foundations for further growth and enabled more direct access to our customers worldwide. Additionally, we have strengthened our offering for our South East Asia customers through our strategic acquisition of City Zone Express, a Penang, Malaysia-based Road Logistics service provider."
The net turnover of Sea Logistics in the first quarter of 2024 amounted to CHF 1.9 billion, with an EBIT of CHF 197 million. The conversion rate was 39%. The sea freight volume reached 1.0 million TEU by the end of March 2024. During the first three months of the year, the business segment delivered a volume growth of 1.5% year-on-year.
Additionally, the visibility platform Seaexplorer was expanded to include schedules for less-than-container-load (LCL) shipments. In the context of the Red Sea crisis, customers successfully optimized their transport planning using real-time information provided by Seaexplorer.
For more information: 
Dominique Nadelhofer
Kuehne+Nagel
Tel.: +41 44 786 95 26
Email: dominique.nadelhofer@kuehne-nagel.com