SIMIC

"Covid has entered into a new phase with the worldwide spread of the Delta variant, which has been severely affecting global and domestic supply chains and disrupting business operations at different levels around the world," said Kerry managing director William Ma.

These disruptions and capacity chokeholds, together with different government approaches and restrictions in tackling the pandemic, have compelled the logistics industry to move towards a growing focus on service customisation," he said.

"Leveraging our core competency in providing highly customised solutions, the group capitalised on the opportunities in this new environment and achieved record growth in both revenue and core net profit in 2021 1H," he said.

The integrated logistics business reported a 13 per cent segment profit growth, mainly riding on a booming manufacturing sector in mainland China, said he company statement.

"In Hong Kong, the warehousing business grew 18 per cent backed by a higher occupancy. The logistics operations business increased by nine per cent as the pandemic remained largely under control since 2021 Q2.

In Taiwan, the segment profit for the integrated logistics division maintained stable with a five per cent growth.

In Asia, the integrated logistics division suffered a drop of 12 per cent in segment profit as the pandemic continued to rumble across the region with prolonged lockdowns, restrictions and quarantine measures.

The international freight forwarding business recorded a 279 per cent profit growth in 2021 1H, mainly riding on the change in consumer behavior and strong exports from mainland China to the world.

"The air freight sector continued to operate with scarce international belly cargo capacity provided by passenger aircraft, prompting the market to rely on freighters of limited space, which resulted in serious fluctuation in air freight capacity and rates," said the company statement.

"In the ocean freight sector, congestion in destination ports has caused severe delays to vessel turnaround time and exacerbated the container equipment shortage in Asia. Currently, there are still huge backlogs in mainland China where plenty of cargo vessels destined for the Americas and Europe were cancelled or delayed," it said.

Upon the completion of SF Holding's investment in the group, the profit will have a significant adjustment in light of the disposal of the Hong Kong warehouse and the Taiwan businesses to Kerry Holdings Limited, said the press release.

Said Mr Ma: "With no end to the pandemic in sight, we are ready to capture the growing opportunities in the booming and evolving e-commerce business. Moving forward, the group will further strengthen our product offerings to navigate a highly inefficient and volatile global supply situation."