DHL 2014 Annual Report Download - page 34

GLOBAL FORWARDING, FREIGHT DIVISION
The air, ocean and road freight forwarder
e Global Forwarding and Freight business units are responsible for air, ocean and road
freight transport within the Group. Our freight forwarding services not only include
standardised transports but also multimodal and sector-specic solutions as well as
individualised industrial projects.
Our business model is very asset-light, as it is based on the brokerage of transport
services between our customers and freight carriers. Our global presence ensures net-
work optimisation and the ability to meet the increasing demand for ecient routing
and multimodal transports.
The leader in a revived air freight market
e global air freight market grew in , whereby volumes increased more signi-
cantly than capacities. According to , the global airline industry association, world-
wide freight tonne kilometres own during the reporting year increased by . . As
airlines brought more wide-body passenger aircra into service, air freight rates saw
a decline in the rst half of the year. In contrast, freighter capacities as a proportion of
overall capacities decreased to .  in the reporting year (previous year: . ), as
major freight carriers deployed their freighter aircra more carefully. is situation, in
conjunction with a strong increase in demand, resulted in increased pressure on capacity
buying rates in the second half of the year. Aer transporting . million export freight
tonnes in the previous year, we remained the air freight market leader in .
Ocean freight market experiences surplus capacities and volatile freight rates
In the international ocean freight market, ocean carriers have put many new, larger
vessels into operation in recent years. Nevertheless, freight carriers have successfully
limited the eective supply increase – either by adjusting travel speeds, blank sailings
or capacity reallocations. Although ocean carriers have implemented higher freight
rates, they were unable to improve their protability. As a result, market freight rates
remained very volatile, above all on the important container routes between Asia and
Europe. Aer transporting . million twenty-foot equivalent units in the previous year,
we remained the second-largest provider of ocean freight services in the reporting year.
Slight growth in European road freight market
e European road freight market grew slightly in , with estimates between around
.  and .  (previous year: –  to  ). e primary reason for this development
was above all the stabilised macroeconomic environment in Europe in the rst half of
the year. Nevertheless, the market remains highly competitive. Due to our successful
service portfolio,  was able to slightly outperform market growth in the Freight
business unit.
. Air freight market, : top 
Thousand tonnes
1
1 Data based solely on export freight tonnes.
Source: annual reports, publications
and company estimates.
1,134 Kuehne + Nagel
1,092  Schenker
825 Panalpina
2,215 
. Ocean freight market, : top 
Thousand  s
1
1 Twenty-foot equivalent units.
Source: annual reports, publications
and company estimates.
2,807 
1,891  Schenker
1,495 Panalpina
3,578 Kuehne + Nagel
. European road transport
market,: top 
Market volume:  billion
1, 2
1 Country base: total for  European countries,
excluding bulk and specialities transport.
2  and  figures have been adjusted
withrespect to the  study  using
currentprice information.
Source:  Study   (based on Eurostat,
financial publications,  Global Insight).
1.9 % 
2.6 % 
1.8 % Dachser
1.2 % Kuehne + Nagel
3.6 %  Schenker
Deutsche Post  Group —  Annual Report
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