CEVA increased its EBITDA by 13 per cent to $85 million in the third quarter on turnover up 5.4 per cent to $1.8bn.
Chief executive Xavier Urbain said: “We have been able to offset on-going market volatility in air and ocean freight. Our procurement and pricing strategy has enabled us to protect yields sequentially. Contract logistics continues to grow and delivers improved results through focused action on contracts. CEVA is on track to deliver a stronger result in 2017. The transformation we have embarked on is positioning CEVA as a strong player for the future.”
Contract Logistics EBITDA was $43 million in the third quarter, up $5 million year-on-year in constant currency, a strengthening of the margin by 50 bps. The group said this was driven by the focus on productivity improvement on key contracts through the excellence programme and the portfolio review.
Revenue was up by 1.7 per cent in the third quarter in constant currency despite fewer trading days in the quarter and the termination of certain contracts.
Freight Management EBITDA in the third quarter was $26 million, down $1 million year-over-year as a result of margins pressure from rates.
The group said that in the third quarter, Freight Management maintained volume growth for its air product at 11.8 per cent versus prior year. Market volatility in airfreight rates continues, notably on routes ex-Asia. Volume planning and pricing measures have enabled us to mitigate that pressure to a large extent.
Ocean freight saw an organic growth of 2.8 per cent in the quarter.
