DHL Group's B2B Package Volumes Proved Sluggish Throughout 2023; 2024 Guidance Muted

DHL Group is the leading postal operator in Europe, among the top three international express package carriers, and the world's largest air and ocean forwarder. Its legacy German postal operations (roughly 12% of total revenue) face secular demand declines and are heavily regulated. However, we expect growth in the DHL segments and growth in the German (and international-domestic) parcel delivery operations to continue to offset declines in traditional mail-related activity (on average) over the freight cycle, and despite an overall soft freight and logistics backdrop in 2023 and into early 2024.