Deutsche Bahn profit off 32pc, DB Schenker down 23pc

GERMAN railway Deutsche Bahn pre-tax profit fell 32 per cent in 2009 to EUR1.68 billion (US$2.23 billion) drawn on revenues of EUR9.3 billion, a year-on-year decline of 12 per cent.

Its unit DB Schenker Logistics revenue declined 23.4 per cent to EUR11.3 billion while pre-tax profit fell 49 per cent to EUR199 million.

Schenker Rail, which handles Deutsche Bahn's freight, experienced a revenue fall of 18 per cent to EUR4 billion, losing EUR189 million against a 2008 profit of EUR300 million.

Deutsche Bahn chairman and CEO Rudiger Grube attributed the decline to a fall in German exports, mostly in cars and chemicals. Volumes were also hit by the downturn in intermodal traffic through German ports with rail kilometre tonnes falling 17 per cent.

"It is less clear why DB Schenker Logistics saw such dramatic falls in profit," said a UK Transport report. "Although volumes fell heavily within air freight forwarding - by 16 per cent - sea freight and road freight saw surprisingly modest falls of 2.1 per cent and 3.8 per cent respectively. How Schenker was able to retain so much volume is unclear, although one might be tempted to assume that margins were badly squeezed in doing so."

State-owned Deutsche Bahn provides little detail on business units, thus making inter-company comparisons difficult.

"On such sparse information it is hard to make any clear assertions about the direction of Deutsche Bahn's logistics businesses," said Transport Intelligence.

(Source: Schednet)