Tag: International

Denmark Post nine-month profits drop

Posted by | Nov 22, 2007 | |

Post Danmark announced today lower profits for the first nine months of the year due to stagnating revenues and higher costs and also confirmed it expects a decline in full-year profits. But its parcels and express business continued to grow.

The Danish postal group saw January-September turnover rise to DKK 8,815 million from DKK 8,634 million over the same period last year, mostly thanks to consolidation of the Transportgruppen transport company.

But Ebit dropped to DKK 590 million from DKK 892 million over the same period last year and net profits fell to DKK 401 million from DKK 730 million. This was due to higher wages, increased transport costs and additional costs of DKK 130 million from a pre-pension programme at minority holding Belgian Post.

Post Danmark’s Courier, Express and Parcels business unit, including Transportgruppen, increased nine-month revenues to DKK 1,278 million from DKK 956 million last year but its operating loss more than doubled to DKK 155 million. This was largely due to higher transportation costs which outweighed the revenue increase

1 USD = 5.02338 DKK

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Launch of 'High Speed' Inbound European Logistics Service

Posted by | Nov 22, 2007 | |

On the 19th November Business Direct launched a new European mainland to UK air service.
The new service operates from the company’s outbound hub based at Airport Weeze on the Dutch-German border. Weeze has been chosen because of its strategic location to the major European Distribution centres of several global electronics, computer, materials handling, automotive and manufacturing companies.
This new air service delivers significant competitive advantage for Business Direct customers by providing them with through the night, pre 8am delivery in the U.K. Utilising the 4,000 intelligent drop box ParcelXchanges, in-boot service and two-man courier networks throughout the UK, Business Direct can provides a seamless, highly secure, in-night service, with full track and trace capability. This enhances engineers productivity and significantly reduces customers inventory holding, warehousing and distribution costs

“The unique benefit of this new European through the night service, is that we can tailor make it to meet the exact needs of each customer and add significant value to their UK operation.” commented Paul Carvell Chief Executive of Business Direct. “With a high quality infrastructure and reputation for service excellence in the UK this is a major development of our business targeted at those companies who have large scale service engineer and parts delivery requirements in the UK.”

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Fuel costs take a toll on holiday shipping fees

Posted by | Nov 22, 2007 | |

FedEx, UPS and the Postal Service have all increased prices to help counter the higher fuel costs they are paying.

For years, UPS and FedEx have added a surcharge based on the price of diesel and jet fuel which can make shipping costs fluctuate. With crude oil prices hitting record highs, the recent movement in shipping prices has been up — way up.

Anything shipped by air after Dec. 3 will have a 17.5 percent surcharge added to it by UPS or FedEx. For ground delivery, a 5.25 percent fuel surcharge will be added to the companies’ base rate.

The add-ons mean a 2-pound package shipped from Raleigh to Albuquerque, N.M. for two-day delivery in December will cost USD 21.79, up from about USD 17.49 a year ago via UPS express. The same parcel on FedEx will cost USD 18.21, up from USD 16.68 a year ago.

The higher fees include increases in base shipping rates that rose 4.9 percent for UPS and 3.5 percent for FedEx this year. But most of the increase can be blamed on higher fuel costs.

A year ago, the UPS and FedEx fuel surcharge for express delivery in December was 11.5 percent. The ground delivery surcharge was 3.5 percent.

Still, both UPS and FedEx expect record volumes this year. FedEx expects to deliver 11.3 million packages on peak days before Christmas and UPS expects to deliver 22 million.

The Postal Service raised rates by an average of 8.5 percent in May to cover anticipated fuel price increases. It expects to deliver 20 billion pieces of mail, including packages, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, spokesman David Partenheimer said.

The Postal Service offers an USD 8.95 flat rate for two- or three-day priority delivery for most packages, up from USD 8.10 a year ago. The rate is for domestic mail but also applies to people sending gifts to relatives in the military overseas, regardless of the size or weight of the package being shipped.

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Singapore Post upgraded to 'buy' from 'hold' on attractive valuation

Posted by | Nov 22, 2007 | |

Kim Eng Securities has upgraded Singapore Post Ltd (SingPost) to “buy” from “hold” in light of the stock’s attractive valuation compared to its target price of 1.38 Singapore dollars a share.

“The stock looks attractive now following the share price correction in the past two weeks,” Kim Eng said in a client note Thursday.

“Furthermore, SingPost provides a safe harbor amid a volatile market, given its quarterly dividend payouts and its attractive policy of paying out 80-90 percent of earnings (or a minimum of 5 cents/share),” it said.

The brokerage expects SingPost’s year to March 2008 net profit to grow to 150.9 million Singapore dollars from a projected 139.7 million dollars this year.

Kim Eng said the postal operator’s growth initiatives overshadow the threat from potential local competitors as Singapore liberalizes its postal services.

SingPost said last month it will continue to grow its core businesses of mail and logistics locally, and extend its regional reach.

At the end of the morning session, SingPost was up 1 cent or 0.9 percent at 1.13 dollars, with 1.9 million shares traded.

(1 US dollar = 1.45 Singapore dollars)

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Chronopost extends French regional network

Posted by | Nov 21, 2007 | |

La Poste’s French domestic express subsidiary Chronopost has further extended its regional network under its ongoing network restructuring.

Chronopost said it has opened a new facility close to Nimes to strengthen its presence in the southern region of Languedoc-Roussillon. The facility will handle the distribution of some 1,200 parcels daily and 250 collections. This is its 16th opening in France this year, including the regional hub at Lyon-Corbas and a 2,600 sqm depot in Marseille.

Chronopost, which is restructuring its domestic network around five hubs and 68 local centres, has invested EUR 120 million in the network since 2005. Its new EUR 50 million, 13,000 sqm national hub at Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris, due to open in early 2008, will handle about 60 pct of its domestic shipments.

Meanwhile, Exapaq, the small parcels carrier acquired by La Poste in early 2006, opened two new facilities strategically located for traffic to Germany and Italy earlier this year, giving its six hubs across France with total capacity to handle 260,000 packages per day.

The fully-automated sorting centre at Beaune in Burgundy, with maximum capacity of 12,000 packages per hour, serves as a connection point with Germany and the DPD network. The Saint-Rambert hub, in the Drome region close to the Italian border, acts as an entry portal for all packages coming from Italy and as an exit portal for packages headed for Italy and Spain. This mechanized sorting centre has a maximum processing capacity of 8,000 packages per hour.

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