DSV’s Q3 air volumes hit by weak Europe and reduced Asia-Europe e-commerce

DSV’s airfreight business faced third quarter challenges including weak activity in Europe and reduced Asia Pacific-Europe e-commerce demand.

Airfreight volumes fell by 3% to 560,890 tonnes in the third quarter compared to the third quarter of 2025. Overall, volumes grew 15% year on year in the first nine months of 2026.

As well as reduced e-commerce shipment volumes on the Asia Pacific-Europe trade lane and Europe-APAC volumes that were below expected levels, the Denmark-headquartered freight forwarder said its air volumes were also negatively impacted by yield management initiatives and shippers shifting cargo from air to sea transport.

Meanwhile, DSV pointed out that the Middle East conflict continued to disrupt global airfreight networks, leading to higher costs and volatility, flight rerouting and reduced effective capacity.

However, technology, including cloud, demand in Asia Pacific and North America helped lift volumes.

“Despite a positive volume trend during the quarter, the decline was larger than expected,” said DSV. “Volumes were impacted by yield-management initiatives, conversion from air freight to sea freight, lower-than expected activity in Europe and reduced e-commerce volumes on the APAC-Europe trade lane.

“This was partially offset by growth within Technology business in APAC and North America. Middle East-related trade lanes remained weak due to the ongoing conflict in the region.”

Despite the drop in volumes, airfreight revenue for the quarter was up 16.6% to Dkr24.6bn and air gross profit improved 4.3% to Dkr5bn.

DSV commented that average gross profit yields increased “8% YoY in constant currencies”.

Air and Sea

Revenue for the air and sea division was Dkr45.5bn, up by 15.9% in constant currencies terms.

This was “mainly driven by increased freight rates and surcharge recovery, especially in air freight”, said DSV.

Meanwhile, gross profit was Dkr9.2bn. This was an increase of 0.2% year on year, dragged down by the performance of the sea business, where gross profit was down 4.2%

“Gross profit was affected by negative volume growth in certain European markets, as well as the transfers of certain services to Global Products,” said DSV. “Adjusted for these transfers, gross profit increased 2.8% YoY.”

The forwarder further stated: “In constant currencies, the gross profit was on level with last year. Higher average gross profit yields for air freight and integration synergies were offset by lower freight volumes across both air and sea freight.”

Across the whole business DSV reported revenue of Dkr80.6bn, up 12% year on year.

DSV reported gross profit of Dkr20.3bn, an increase of 2.3% compared to the same period last year.

Jens Lund, DSV Group chief executive, said: “We delivered earnings growth in a volatile market, driven by strong results in Air & Sea and Contract Logistics.

“Road was affected by integration-related operational issues, but service levels recovered by quarter-end, allowing us to shift our focus to productivity, commercial initiatives and organic growth.

“We remain focused on completing the Schenker integration, realising synergies and advancing our 2030 ambitions through investments in AI, technology and network optimisation.”

Schenker integration

The integration of Schenker has largely continued as planned, said DSV. At the end of the third quarter, almost all of the countries with operations “have either completed integration or are in the process of integrating”.

However, there are a small number of countries where integration is expected to start during the fourth quarter.

The Road division in particular has seen operational and commercial challenges in certain European markets following the integration.

“Annual synergies are still expected to be at the level of DKK 9 billion, partly offset by inflationary pressure and costs related to increased activity in Contract Logistics,” said DSV.

“The remaining synergies related to Road and certain Group functions are expected to be delayed into 2027 due to the operational issues in Road.”