Airfreight rates help push Dachser revenues over the €6bn mark in 2017

Germany’s Dachser achieved record revenues in 2017, crossing the €6bn threshold for the first time.
The global logistics provider increased its consolidated gross revenue by 7.2% to €6.12bn. Dachser also set other company records by handling a total of 81.7m shipments (+2.1%).
“We systematically pursued our successful export strategy for European overland transport and gained an additional tail wind from invigorated global trade,” said Bernhard Simon, chief executive Dachser SE. “Rising rates for air and sea freight in particular helped us achieve a significant increase in revenue.”
The company stated: “In the Air & Sea Logistics (ASL) business field, greatly invigorated business combined with a rise in freight rates — especially in airfreight — to push gross revenue up by 15.7% to €1.79bn.
All three regional ASL business units saw double-digit percentage increases in revenue, with the Asia business achieving the largest revenue growth, of over 20%. The number of shipments the business field handled overall went up 6.7%, while TEUs and tonnage increased by 8.5% and 23.3% respectively.
“Air and sea freight is a volatile business with revenue as ever swinging between extremes,” said Simon, adding: “We are, however, focused on ensuring sustainable, profitable growth. So we are increasingly dovetailing our two business fields and are pushing forward with system integration.”
Dachser’s other business sectors: Road Logistics, European Logistics and Food Logistics also achieved positive results.
Despite the favorable tail winds, which continued through the 2018 first quarter, Simon warned that “capacity bottlenecks and the growing shortage of drivers” as major factors that could potentially limit future growth.
“For this reason, our commitment to training has top priority,” he said.
In 2017, the first 22 professional truck drivers completed their training through Dachser Service und Ausbildungs GmbH in Germany.