DSV 'tranching' clients yet 'sheer lack' of integration weighs – sources
Looking for direction
The world’s two largest freight forwarders went head-to-head today as DSV and Kuehne + Nagel (K+N)reported third-quarter results in a period of profound restructuring, and in an increasingly difficult market.
DSV saw the first full quarterly impact of the Schenker business, with sea freight volumes growing 52% on the same period last year, although management admitted that DSV-only volumes were down 5% year on year.
This meant that, by the slim margin of around 30,000 teu, K+N has retained its position as the largest sea freight forwarder, with its third-quarter volume of 1.1m teu.
Altogether, DSV shipped 1.07m teu during the past three months, and its ocean freight activities generated a gross profit of Dkr4.4bn ($683m), of which Dkr3.09bn was attributed to DSV, and Dkr1.3bn to Schenker.
However, DSV CEO Jens Lund admitted the market was entering a particularly uncertain phase: “It’s crunch time,” he said.
In air freight forwarding, DSV’s volumes were up 64% year on year, although organic volumes were slightly down, due to the “exit of low-yielding volume”. Total Q3 volumes for the group were 579,000 tonnes, compared with 352,000 tonnes in the same period last year.
The road freight and contract logistics divisions both also saw a positive impact from the addition of Schenker, the former reporting a far higher Ebit, of Dkr798m, compared with Dkr514m the year before, despite the fact that “organic earnings remained lower compared with the same period last year”.
Meanwhile, contract logistics saw its Ebit almost double to Dkr1.1bn, compared with last year’s Dkr636m.
“Schenker contributed positively to the earnings growth, while improved organic earnings were driven by commercial initiatives leading to higher utilisation and a continued focus on cost efficiency,” DSV said.
Its group-wide revenues soared to just below Dkr72bn, compared with Dkr44.1bn the year before, while Ebit was Dkr5.4bn, compared with Dkr4.4bn the year before, and it largely retained its full-year outlook of an Ebit of between Dkr19.5bn and Dkr20.5bn.
Ebit for the first nine months of 2025 stands at Dkr14bn.
In contrast, Kuehne + Nagel this morning downgraded its full-year Ebit outlook from CHF1.45bn-CHF1.65bn to CHF1.3bn ($1.63bn) following a quarter during which its sea freight division saw a 57% year-on-year Ebit decline and air freight forwarding lost 23% year on year.
While sea freight volumes were flat, at 1.1m teu, it did record a 7% gain in air freight tonnage, to 564,000 tonnes.
Road freight operations saw a 9% decline in Ebit while revenues were up 3% as weak demand and overcapacity continued to plague European road freight; and its contract logistics division saw both Ebit and revenue rise by single-digit points on the previous year.
Third-quarter group revenues increased 3% year on year, to CHF18.5bn, while Ebit contracted 17%, to CHF1.03bn – and, in response, the company announced a new cost-cutting programme aimed at saving some CHF200m.
“With the launch of group-wide cost reduction measures, we are now taking action to safeguard our cost base,” said K+N CEO Stefan Paul. “Challenging external factors are forcing us to sustainably and permanently improve our efficiency and performance culture.”
According to a note from investment bank Jefferies, CHF110m will come from job losses, CHF50m from facilities, and the remaining CHF40m from “others”.
The programme is expected to complete by the end of 2026 and is likely to incur around CHF50m in restricting costs over the fourth quarter this year and Q1 26.
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