Kühne & Nagel feels freight market slump
Despite sharp contractions in the sea freight and air freight markets, Kühne & Nagel, the world's largest sea freight company, says it will see narrower-than-market declines.
Gerard van Kesteren, chief financial officer of the Swiss-based firm, said on Monday he expected the global sea freight market to contract by 15 per cent while the world air freight market would fall by 20 per cent.
He also said that he saw a rise in freight rates, but this would only have an impact on Kühne & Nagel’s margins in the short term.
In March the company, which employs 54,000 people worldwide, announced up to 4,500 job cuts in 2009 as part of cost-cutting exercises, despite filing record annual results. Net profit for 2008 was SFr585 million ($548 million), an increase of 9.1 per cent on 2007. Turnover rose by three per cent to SFr21.6 billion.
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