UPS posts record Q4, full year results

UPS Inc. said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter and full year 2011 revenue and package volumes set all-time records despite an uneven global economic picture that will remain in place in 2012.

The Atlanta-based transportation and logistics giant posted $53.1 billion in revenue in 2011, which bettered the previous all-time record of $51.5 billion set in 2008. The company reported that annual package volume exceeded 4 billion for the first time in its 107-year history.

In the fourth quarter, normally its busiest time of the year, UPS posted revenue of $14.17 billion, versus $13.42 billion in the 2010 quarter. Average daily package volume hit 18.3 million. Both revenue and volume figures were fourth-quarter records, the company said. Daily volumes hit all time-records of 27 million on two separate days during the peak holiday shipping season, UPS said.

The company's core domestic package segment reported a 7.3-percent year-over-year revenue increase in the fourth quarter, a result of higher base rates and the impact of fuel surcharges. Revenue for the international package and "supply chain and freight" categories showed year-over-gains in the quarter of 4.5 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. Average daily export volumes in the quarter exceeded 1 million pieces for the first time in UPS's history, it said.

In the supply chain and freight segment, UPS Freight, the company's less-than-truckload division, posted year-over-year revenue growth of 9 percent in the quarter, UPS said.

Kurt Kuehn, UPS's CFO, said the 2011 gains came amid a "volatile operating environment where trends varied by region." Kuehn, in a statement, said the company's 2012 view is "for mixed economic growth around the world, with modest improvements in the U.S."