Impact of the global economy and geopolitics on our business in 2025
The global forwarding market in 2025 was characterized by ongoing geopolitical conflicts and increasing tariff-related uncertainties. The capacity constraints of the previous year eased over the course of 2025, and there was an increasing degree of cautious optimism around the situation in the Red Sea, resulting in reduced freight rates in air and ocean freight.
In the European road freight market, demand remained subdued in the 2025 fiscal year. At the same time, costs remained at a high level. This was caused by rising labor costs, difficult market conditions and a significant tightening of capacity, which increased procurement prices.
Global Forwarding, Freight: revenue declines due to lower freight rates
Revenue in the Global Forwarding, Freight division decreased in the 2025 fiscal year by 5.1% to €18,643 million due to lower freight rates. Excluding negative currency effects of €333 million, revenue was 3.4% below the prior-year level. At €4,688 million, the division’s fourth-quarter revenue in 2025 was down by 8.4% year on year.
Revenue in the Global Forwarding business unit decreased by 5.8% to €13,709 million in the 2025 fiscal year. Without taking negative currency effects of €369 million into account, revenue was 3.3% below the prior-year level. Gross profit in the Global Forwarding business unit declined by 2.9% year on year to €3,368 million. In the fourth quarter of 2025, revenue was 10.2% below the prior-year figure.
With around 1.8 million metric tons of export air freight transported, air freight volumes in the 2025 fiscal year were down by 1.0% on the previous year’s level. Our air freight revenue fell by 4.6% and gross profit by 0.9% year on year. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the respective decline was 10.3% in air freight revenue and 6.6% in gross profit. Ocean freight volumes fell by 1.2% in 2025 to approximately 3.3 million 20-foot container units (TEUs), chiefly due to declining goods traffic from Asia and North America. Volume development was also impacted by the systematic withdrawal from the transport of high-volume, low-yield business. Due to lower freight rates, ocean freight revenue in 2025 was down by 8.6%, while gross profit fell by 5.4% given the market environment. In the fourth quarter of 2025, ocean freight revenue fell by 15.7% and gross profit by 16.1%.
Revenue in the Freight business unit in the 2025 fiscal year declined by 2.9% to €5,043 million. We experienced a shipment volume decline of 1.4%, not least due to the dependence of the German less-than-truckload business on the automotive industry. The challenging market situation and noticeably increased costs resulted in reduced profitability. Gross profit declined by 13.5% to €1,098 million. In the fourth quarter, revenue fell by 2.8%.
EBIT in the Global Forwarding, Freight division fell by 29.6% to €756 million in the 2025 fiscal year. The result includes a negative net, non-recurring effect of €84 million due to restructuring. The EBIT margin for the fiscal year was 4.1%. EBIT in the division thus corresponds to 16.9% of gross profit and 24.1% for the Global Forwarding business unit. At €163 million, division EBIT in the fourth quarter of 2025 was 36.1% below the prior-year figure of €255 million.
