Losses at CEVA have grown to $224 million for 2016 while revenue also dipped to $6.6 billion.

Total comprehensive loss for the period net of income tax was up from $196 million and revenue was down 4.5 per cent from $6.9 billion.

Freight management revenue was down from $3.1 billion in 2015 to $3 billion in 2016 and contract logistics declined from $3.7 billion to $3.6 billion in the same period.

Chief executive officer, Xavier Urbain remains positive about the company’s performance saying: “I am very pleased with the Q4 performance where CEVA demonstrated healthy growth in all business lines and visible impact of our excellence program which supported us to deliver robust EBITDA in spite of the difficult peaks trading. The quarter also saw an impressive recovery in net working capital and strong cash flow.”

He says CEVA made significant progress in transforming the company with important business wins and addressing legacy issues.

Urbain says: “The strong improvement in results, in many of our markets, were overshadowed by weaker performance in some countries, which we continue to address. We enter 2017 in a stronger position and I am confident that we will have a much better performance with our excellence program leading to further cost savings.”

CEVA airfreight volumes grew 6.7 per cent in 2016 but net revenue margins were down in the fourth quarter due to “difficult peaks trading and a general increase in rates following the Hanjin bankruptcy” for both air and ocean freight.

The company comments it has seen a shift from air to ocean freight, particularly in Asia, softening airfreight volumes and negatively impacting margins and net working capital requirements.

CEVA says these trends may be cyclical in nature but there are no assurances that the trend from airfreight to ocean does not continue and it may not be able to prepare or predict future shifts in demand for particular transport services.