INCHEON: August 01, 2019. Ceva Logistics is providing air export services to Japan and Singapore from its logistics and distribution centre at Incheon Airport for iHerb, a US-based health products e-commerce company.

“This is a milestone for Ceva Korea because it is the first time that we operate a business-to-consumer express business in the country,” explained says Bruce Lee, Ceva Korea Business Development head. “We believe this high potential, win-win model will offer us positive growth prospects in the Korean B2C market,” he added.

For the first half of 2019 (H1), Ceva reported a 3.4 percent drop in revenue year-on-year to US$3.5 billion due to foreign currencies exchange rates for the Turkish Lira, euro and Sterling. EBITDA was US$85 million on a pre-IFRS 16 basis compared to US$119 million in the same period last year.

The company said the result included US$12 million restructuring charges and was negatively impacted by the performance of its Italian contract logistics business and a reduction in automotive contracts.

Ceva’s airfreight business produced stronger net revenue per tonne flown “despite a significant contraction of the market volumes” while its ocean volumes were hit by a major contract loss in the second quarter.

Now owned by CMA CGM, Ceva CEO Nicolas Sartini acknowledged the company has gone through significant and structural changes in the first half of 2019 against a challenging macroeconomic backdrop. “We are currently focusing on the turnaround of the company through deep operational changes and on achieving positive free cash flow as early as the fourth quarter 2019," he said.