The Power 25: Forwarders are rising fast, but keep those seatbelts fastened

Keep Those Seatbelts Fastened

While most of the Power 25 news was generally positive, there were a few forwarders who took a bit of a tumble in the rankings – partially due to a dip in airfreight volumes, and partially from being passed by other growing competition. Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, for instance, experienced the largest decline in volumes – a 12% slide from more than 654,000 tonnes in 2017 to just 578,000 the following year. As a result, the German forwarder fell from No. 8 to No. 11.

Another German forwarder, Dachser Air & Sea Logistics, also fell three rungs down the Power 25 ladder to No. 19, despite a 4.8% rise to 344,900 tonnes in 2018. Theresia Gläser, a consultant for public relations at Dachser Group, said its revenue trend “is always particularly volatile” and dependent on international freight rates and exchange rates, “some of which are subject to extreme fluctuations.” For example, last year’s net revenue for Dachser stagnated at -0.4%, she said, while there was a 17.5% increase in net revenues back in 2017, despite high freight rates. “On the positive side, we achieved good revenue growth at the end of the year with new customers in the U.S.”

A few other forwarders, such as No. 12 Sinotrans and No. 23 FedEx Logistics, either stayed in place or fell a spot or two due to stagnant growth or a slight contraction in airfreight tonnage. Kuwait-based Agility Logistics, which fell from No. 14 to No. 15 on the list, also had “a pretty flat year,” Armstrong said, which may have led to it not being considered as an M&A target by Panalpina. Sadly, Dimerco Express Group, which had held the No. 24 spot for the last two Power 25 lists, fell to the 26th spot this time, making it the only firm to be knocked off the Power 25 list this year.

While airfreight tonnage rose for most of the Power 25, the uncertainty about the future is still a concern, especially if the tariffs between the U.S. and China continue unabated. DSV CEO Jens Bjørn Andersen, said that, while his company is looking forward to a strong year for the new DSV-Panalpina, there is concern about increasing tariffs, as “there could be a slight negative impact,” on some trade lanes.

“We had the big inventory build of last year, which gave everybody a significant bump, before the tariffs took place,” Armstrong said. “But e-commerce is a nice tailwind. I don’t expect we’ll have 15.5% growth again. But if we can get 7% or 8%, it’s probably going to be more realistic.”

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