Expeditors’ has reported its finances Q1 2020, reporting revenues of $1.9bn down 6% year-on-year. Operating income declined 15% year-on-year to $159m.
Revenue for Expeditors Airfreight division totalled $709m, down 1% year-on-year. This decline was primarily attributed to a 7% decline in tonnage which was partly offset by a 6% increase in average sell rates.
Ocean freight and ocean services revenues decreased by 13% during Q1 2020. This was due to a 10% decline in container volume, primarily in North Asia.
The Customs brokerage and import services revenues also fell, contracting 5% year-on-year to $699m. This was attributed to a decrease in shipments from existing customers. Slowdowns due to COVID-19 related closures affected volumes, particularly in the retail, aerospace, automotive, oil and energy sectors.
“Our Q1 performance was better than we might have expected, given the contraction in demand across geographies, as well as the severity and suddenness of the collapse in air carrier belly space and reduction in containership sailings. While there is talk of various markets starting to come back online, the impact of COVID-19 continues to have an enormous impact on the global economic environment, to both supply and demand, as well as to buy/sell rates. While we remain fully staffed and ready for when economies across the world start to regain their post-crisis footing, we do not know when, how quickly, or how uniformly that will take place,” said Jeffrey S. Musser, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Source: Expeditors’
