Second quarter EBITDA at CEVA Logistics grew by 11.9% to $66 million. Revenues were up 7.3% to $1.85bn.

Contract Logistics revenue increased by 6.8% in Q2. The division’s EBITDA remained stable at $39m. Improvements in productivity at many of the large, focus contracts were offset by issues in a limited number of operations in Italy and in the US.

“The issues have now been largely addressed and are expected to have a reduced impact over the second half of 2018. Our low margin contract initiative is also gaining traction. As such, we anticipate margins to trend upwards in the second half of 2018.”

CEVA Logistics Freight Management division saw revenues grow by 8.1%, while EBITDA grew by $7 million to $27 million. This was driven by improved yields in Air, increased productivity and progress in reducing losses in other FM activities.

“Profits were adversely impacted by increased cost in our US Ground business due to driver shortages, the impact of which is expected to reduce in coming quarters as we take mitigating actions.”

CEVA Chief executive Xavier Urbain said: “We continue to reduce our cost base, work on productivity and address our underperforming activities. In the first half of the year, margin growth has been skewed towards Freight Management, we expect Contract Logistics to make more progress in the second half of the year as we have largely addressed the issues. We are committed to further improving our margins and are moving in the right direction.”

“While still early days, initial benefits from the deleveraging through the IPO are already materializing. We have increased business with some existing clients and are engaged in a number of promising discussions. In general, we have good momentum in business development. We are also making progress in developing our partnership with our new strategic shareholder CMA CGM.”

“Looking ahead, we are confident in further improving our performance this year and in meeting our medium-term targets.”