Panalpina’s airfreight volumes increased eight per cent in the first six months of 2016, while it says the market decreased by an estimated three per cent.

The freight forwarder says volumes from acquired companies accounted for six per cent of air cargo growth and it saw higher volumes in the perishables sector, but lower volumes in the oil and gas sector.

The gross profit per ton decreased four per cent to CHF 690 ($699) (HY 2015: CHF 720), resulting in a gross profit overall of CHF 304.5 million (HY 2015: CHF 293.6 million).

Panalpina’s airfreight division achieved an adjusted EBIT of CHF 45.7 million (reported HY 2016: CHF 33.1 million; HY 2015: CHF 46.0 million). The adjusted EBIT-to-gross-profit margin for the first half of 2016 stood at 15 per cent (reported HY 2016: 10.9 per cent; HY 2015: 15.7 per cent).

Overall group gross profit remained stable at CHF 736.3 million in the first half of 2016 (HY 2015: CHF 736.1 million).

Panalpina chief executive officer, Peter Ulber says: “During the second quarter it became evident that the oil and gas business will not bounce back any time soon. Therefore we decided to realign our capacities with the current volumes and not wait for the market to recover. We took the full restructuring costs in the second quarter instead of later.

“The encouraging news is that the rest of the business continued to show considerable robustness against the backdrop of receding markets in air and ocean freight. The underlying profitability remained stable for the first half year.”

As for the future he says: “We still consider the oil and gas industry as a strategic business and are confident that we have taken the right measures in a market that is slowly stabilizing.In all other industries, our business has shown good momentum and we expect this to continue throughout the year. Cost control remains a key priority as we continue to balance our business and product mix.”