Deutsche Bahn (DB) reported a profit of €1.7 billion last year, despite seeing its transport and logistics business “plummet”.
The German state-owned conglomorate’s ebit of €1.7 billion (US$2.3 billion) for last year followed an ebit of €2.5 billion in 2008, and revenues, of €29.3 billion, were 12% down.
DB business units that suffered the most during the recession were rail freight and logistics, with DB Schenker Rail reporting an ebit loss of €189 million, compared with a profit of €307 million in 2008.
DB Schenker Logistics saw a 47.8% decline in ebit to €199 million.
Compared with 2008, volumes transported by DB’s rail freight business in 2009 were down 10% to 341 million tonnes, while logistics overland volumes were down 3.8%, air volumes slipped 16% and ocean volumes were down 2.1%.
Rüdiger Grube, CEO and chairman, said: “The entire transport and logistics industry was directly affected by the worst global economic crisis in memory. Global trade contracted by 12%, while global GDP shrank by 2.2%.
“The logistics industry suffered even more in our home market of Germany, where GDP fell by 5% and exports collapsed – 14% lower than in the previous year.
“The situation during the first six months was substantially more dramatic than the story told by the figures for the full year.”
He added: “Despite the slight recovery seen in the second half, we are still unable to say with any certainty when the crisis will be over. Numerous indicators point to additional challenges facing the global economy.
“Even if we apply the most optimistic scenario, we do not anticipate that the volumes of freight transported in 2007 and 2008 will be seen again before 2014.”
The A2Z Freight Directory - Get your FREE Listing on The no.1 European Freight Directory
No comments:
Post a Comment