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 but a 41 per cent increase from the second quarter of financial year 2021.

Its third-quarter revenue was $351 million, down 1 per cent year on year but up 1 per cent quarter on quarter.

Revenue from domestic post and parcel e-commerce, however, was up on both a year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter basis to $20 million. The group handled 10.3 million e-commerce packages, up from 9.3 million items in the second quarter of financial year 2021 and 7.6 million items in the third quarter of financial year 2020.

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

Volume for international post fell 25 per cent year on year from 8.2 to 6.1 million kilograms. But quarter on quarter, international post volumes have recovered slightly - rising 3 per cent.

Domestic snail mail, meanwhile, continues to decline. Volume was down 21 per cent year on year and 4 per cent quarter on quarter to 119 million items.

SingPost expects the volume of letters and printed papers in Singapore to continue to decline because of 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 cent, or 0.7 per cent, at 70.5 cents on Wednesday.