For the whole company, revenue was down 5% to 38.3 billion kroner (DKK) ($5.49 billion) with the Air & Sea division declining 11.5% to DKK22.7 billion.
DSV says higher volumes for air and sea freight was offset by lower average freight rates, adding that spot rates are higher while the average contract rate was lower than Q1 of last year.
Gross profits were down 8.6% to DKK10.2 billion, which was in line with expectations, due to normalisation of freight rates and yields in the Air & Sea division.
Air & Sea gross profits were down 16.2% to DKK5.7 billion with gross profit yields largely stable compared to Q4 of 2023.
EBIT for the group was down 20.8% to DKK3.6 billion and the Air & Sea division fell by 26% to DKK2.6 billion.
Air volumes increased 2.3% in Q1 compared to last year mainly due to strong exports from Asia-Pacific with the market impacted by growing e-commerce volumes from China, driving up both market volumes and rates.
Airfreight capacity is growing due to passenger travel making belly capacity available, which combined with more freighter capacity than before the pandemic, has led to overcapacity.
DSV expects some of the excess capacity to go as older aircraft are retired.
Jens H. Lund, Group CEO of DSV, says, “In a normalising market, we are off to a good start delivering strong financial results in the first quarter of 2024, and I am particularly satisfied that we are gaining market shares in all three divisions. We have also completed the leadership changes, the organisation has settled, and together with the new and experienced leadership team we will concentrate our efforts on executing on our strategy, with particular focus on our customers.”