Panalpina Annual Report 2006

Central and South America
Rising exports and consistently high
freight volumes within the region
Major oil and gas production and mining projects, as well as
an upswing in exports and new logistics contracts in the hi­tech
and automotive sectors, helped Panalpina to achieve a revenue
growth of 1.2%.
Despite parliamentary and presidential elections in
several Central and South American states, economic
trends stayed more or less steady throughout
the region. Inflation remained under control,
i. e. ran at less than 5%, in all countries except in
Venezuela. The generally stable situation allowed
Panalpina to secure solid business growth in the
reporting year.
Ocean freight exports up by one third
Panalpina witnessed the biggest surge in the ocean
freight sector, where export volumes shot up by
a third year­on­year. Double­digit growth was also
recorded in air shipments. Though narrowly failing
to match the previous year’s figures, goods flows
within the region also continued on a strong up­
ward trend. On the imports front – except in the
case of specific brand­name items, luxury commodities
and hi­tech goods – Asia has now clearly
ousted Europe as the foremost supplier of finished
and semi­finished products to Central and
South America. Panalpina saw its business
expand most rapidly in the telecommunications
and automotive sectors and in the perishables
market (e.g. flowers from Columbia and asparagus
from Peru). The company was also entrusted by
one of the world’s largest computer manufacturers
with the management, as of January 2007, of its
entire warehousing and distribution logistics for the
Mexican market.
Major oil and gas as well as mining projects
Panalpina was able to expand its logistics operations
for a number of large­scale projects in the
oil and gas and mining sectors, with further growth
definitely on the cards for the future. A sizeable
new contract concluded with a regional oil company
enabled Panalpina to push up its market share in
Columbia and thereby assume market leadership
in yet another country. Panalpina’s many years of
experience with deep­water offshore rigs in Africa
also helped it to land a contract for the first highprofile
oil production scheme in Brazil. On one of
Peru’s biggest copper mining projects, Panalpina
is coordinating the entire supply chain for the
relevant building contractor. In the reporting year
alone, this involved the door­to­door shipment of
130,000 tons – equivalent to over 5,000 truckloads
– of material. Further investment, in the order of
several hundred million dollars, is planned by the
mining company with the aim of trebling production
at the site over the next three years.
New branches, centralized service provision
The wholly positive results in establishing ties with
small and medium­sized enterprises prompted
Panalpina in the year under review to extend its
network of customer­focused call centers, originally
set up in 2005, to cover a total of 12 countries.
2006 also saw the establishment of central finan­
cial service centers for the Andina and Central
American sub­regions, to complement the one
opened the previous year in Brazil. A similar center
is planned for the Mercosur area in 2007. The
new operational service center launched in Brazil
will be followed in 2007 by two further facilities
in Mexico City and Bogota. The reporting year also
saw a further refinement of the regional branch
network, with new offices starting up in Monterrey
(Mexico), Curitiba and Porto Alegre (Brazil). Also,
a new logistics warehouse was opened in Manaus
to meet all of the distribution needs for overland
shipments within Brazil.
Reporting Regions
Latam Regional
Competence Center
Based in São Paulo
Net revenue: CHF 670 million
Headcount: 1,988
Branches: 65
Panalpina Annual Report 2006 2