Kuehne+Nagel (K+N) said it had continued to grow its specialist verticals business since DSV’s acquisition of DB Schenker, partly due to efforts by shippers to diversify their business deals.
In its second quarter and first half results release, K+N said its air volumes were up and its Air Logistics business unit benefited from perishables, semiconductors, and cloud infrastructure (hyper scalers) growth.
Speaking during the company’s second quarter 2025 investor call, chief executive Stefan Paul said the forwarder had seen growth in all airfreight verticals apart from automotive.
“So we have seen now in the second quarter growth in all verticals apart from one, which is automotive.
“Where in particular, we have seen growth…is the high-tech hyperscaler market, is the perishable business, in particular fish, and is the hard cargo environment outside of automotive.”
He added the silicon, cloud (technology) and aerospace are also growth areas.
Speaking about the first half of the year overall, Paul said: “In Air Logistics, we are achieving substantial growth in the geographic breadth and frequency of services.”
In response to a question about market changes and opportunities since DSV acquired DB Schenker to establish the world’s biggest forwarder, Paul said the takeover hadn’t curbed K+N's growth opportunities.
“I mentioned the hyperscaler, the cloud marketplace, where we have already taken advantage out of the merger, right?
“And we had a fair share of this business coming in, dominated by two players.”
Paul indicated that K+N had benefited from business diversification strategies utilised by shippers as a means to protect their shipments following the acquisition.
“And secondly, as well, not a big surprise and normally in these kind of environments that customers balance their share of wallet and they do not put all the eggs to one basket, especially where we have customers where the amount of business they have allocated to the two players together is too high from a procurement perspective, we seek good chance and we already have secured significant business in the high-tech. Same is now coming in since a couple of weeks in the healthcare sector, where we gain more and more.”
K+N is also expecting a peak season for airfreight. “The outlook for airfreight is overall robust," said Paul. “There will be quite a peak season to be expected in airfreight."
The company anticipates a muted peak season for seafreight on Asia-US transpacific trade, although Paul stressed Asia-Europe westbound trade still looked to be solid.
“I think the rest of the marketplace, especially Asia to Europe is very resilient. And the market will see good growth as well into the peak season.”
