Bruce Barnard | Jul 28, 2010 11:42AM EDT
Deutsche Bahn, the German railway and logistics group, boosted first half profits by over 26 percent from a year ago driven by a 40 percent surge in rail freight volumes and significantly higher air and ocean container traffic.
DB, Europe’s biggest railroad, booked $1 billion profit before interest and tax as revenues grew 18.8 percent to $20.9 billion. Profit after tax declined, however, to $510 million in the six months to end-June from $711 million in the same period in 2009.
The forwarding and logistics unit, DB Schenker, also reported sizeable gains. Ocean container volumes rose by 150,000 TEUs, or 23.1 percent, to 800,100 TEUs, and air freight grew by 131,000 metric tons to 586,800 metric tons, an increase of 28.6 percent.
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“We are back on track for growth,” said DB Chief Executive Officer Rudiger Grube.
“These gains are not only due to the recovering economy. The support given by all of our executive staff and employees to the measures we took to improve cost structures made a major contribution toward these good figures.”
Rail freight traffic rose by 58 million metric tons, or 40.1 percent, to 203 million tonnes in the first half, as the German economy and Deutsche Bahn’s other European markets recovered from the 2009 recession.
DB Schenker’s land transport division increased shipments by 14.6 percent to 39.4 million items.
--Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.