SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) – Singapore Post on Thursday (Feb 4) announced an operating profit of $26 million for the third quarter ended Dec 31. This represented a 38 per cent decline year-on-year (y-o-y) but a 41 per cent increase from Q2 FY2021.

Its Q3 revenue was $351 million, down 1 per cent y-o-y but up 1 per cent quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q).

Revenue from domestic post and parcel e-commerce, however, was up on both a y-o-y and q-o-q basis to $20 million. The group handled 10.3 million e-commerce packages, up from 9.3 million items in Q2 FY21 and 7.6 million items in Q3 FY20.

In Australia, last-mile delivery also increased 9 per cent q-o-q from 6.7 to 7.3 million consignments. In the year-ago quarter, SingPost had handled last-mile delivery for 4.2 million consigntments.

Volume for international post fell 25 per cent y-o-y from 8.2 to 6.1 million kilograms. But q-o-q, international post volumes have recovered slightly – rising 3 per cent.

Domestic snail mail, meanwhile, continues to decline. Volume was down 21 per cent y-o-y and 4 per cent q-o-q to 119 million items.

SingPost expects the volume of letters and printed papers in Singapore to continue to decline due to electronic substitution.

It also said disruptions to international air freight out of Changi Airport have resulted in higher conveyance costs. This will erode margins for its international post and parcel business.

On a brighter note, its property arm is expected to do better. Its SingPost Centre retail mall and office spaces remain at close to full occupancy, and both traffic and tenant sales are recovering.

SingPost’s shares closed up 0.5 cents, or 0.7 per cent at 70.5 cents on Wednesday.