Workers at DHL Group used to walk close to a half marathon each day just to classify, pick and move items across massive warehouses.
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Now, their distance and efforts are greatly reduced by autonomous mobile robots that can unload containers for the package delivery and supply chain management company with a speed of up to 650 cases per hour.
“That is what we look forward to, and where we’ve been successful in deploying technology at scale over the last five years, going from when we started in 2020 with 240 projects, and now we’re up to 10,000 projects,” Tim Tetzlaff, DHL’s global head of digital transformation, told CNBC.
The company’s autonomous innovations have accelerated processes at 95% of DHL’s global warehouses. Item-picking robots in one warehouse have increased units picked per hour by 30%, while autonomous forklifts at that same warehouse have contributed a 20% increase in efficiency, the company said.
Tetzlaff said automation is important for the company because it’s such a labor-intensive business.
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“We still have the ambition to grow our business even further, but if you look at where these distribution centers should be located … it’s typically very tough to find additional labor or even additional spaces just to build these warehouses there,” he said.
DHL is one of multiple fulfillment companies moving toward automation and leveraging artificial intelligence as the industry works toward greater efficiency.
On an earnings call with analysts in late January, United Parcel Service CEO Carol Tomé said the company deployed automation in 57 buildings in the fourth quarter, bringing its total to 127 automated buildings, with plans for 24 more in 2026.
“This year, we plan to further automate our network and as a result, we expect to increase the percentage of U.S. volume we process through automated facilities to 68% by the end of the year, up from 66.5% at the end of 2025,” she said.
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Similarly, FedEx has said it sees automation as an opportunity to enhance its workers’ jobs, installing robotic arms to help process small packages at its Memphis hub and working with AI company Dexterity to leverage robots for loading boxes into containers. Its “Network 2.0” initiative is working to increase the efficiency of its package processes.
The company recently announced a partnership with Berkshire Grey to launch a fully autonomous robot to unload containers and optimize operations.
It estimates that the global warehouse automation market is expected to exceed $51 billion by 2030.
“We now have about 24% of our eligible average daily volume flowing through 355 Network 2.0-optimized facilities,” CEO Raj Subramaniam said on a call with analysts in December.
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A human fleet
A worker unloads packages from a FedEx truck in San Francisco, California, US, on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
With the rise of automation, companies are weighing the balance between their human workers and their technological innovations.
The company also said it closed 93 buildings in 2025 and plans to shutter at least 24 buildings in the first half of 2026.
“What’s happening is you’re seeing a cascading effect of sites being closed that are legacy conventional facilities, a lot of labor required to run those facilities, to a much more nimble, quicker, automated, consolidated facility,” Executive Vice President Nando Cesarone said on the January call.
In a statement to CNBC, a UPS spokesperson said the company is focused on making jobs easier for its employees and that the AI and robotics take on repetitive tasks that “make us more efficient in other functions.”
FedEx did not respond to requests for comment on how the company is balancing its workforce and technology. Subramaniam said on the most recent earnings call that the Network 2.0 initiative has resulted in “structural cost reductions” but the company has not publicly disclosed job cut amounts.
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Teamsters, the union representing workers from many of the major packaging companies, said it will remain focused on ensuring its team members have a voice at the table when it comes to technology.
“We never want to get in the way of technology and its development, but all of that, it must support workers, and it cannot work against them ever,” spokesperson Lena Melentijevic told CNBC. “It’s the workers who are the backbone of each one of these companies and who are essential to their success, and we are here to advocate for them and hold companies accountable.”
DHL’s Tetzlaff said the company wants its automation to complement human labor instead of replacing it altogether. Regardless of how much DHL’s technology improves, Tetzlaff said the dexterous tasks of packaging and shipping remain in the hands of the employees.
“In the time where we deployed 8,000 collaborative robotics into our operation worldwide, we still hired 40,000 people,” he said.
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The biggest area where DHL has deployed its robotics is in item picking, with more than 2,500 robots using trained arms to select items for packages. This past holiday season, to keep up with the Black Friday and Christmas demand, the company added 30% capacity to its robotic fleet.
“There’s an advantage for us as a company, having a great human fleet of workers that is motivated and likes the job, but complementing this with a robotic fleet that we can scale up and down and have that flexible stability to deal with change, the peaks throughout the year, be it bigger changes like Covid, be it [customer] profile changes and so on,” he said.
The path forward for investment
DHL Autonomous Forklift at work.
Source: DHL
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Still, it’s unlikely there will be a near future in which warehouses are full of humanoid robots, according to supply chain expert and Accenture logistics and fulfillment lead Benjamin Reich.
Humanoid robots have been gaining intense popularity as tech companies innovate human-like machines, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang saying he believes the innovation is fast moving. At the January CES trade show, Google announced a partnership with Boston Dynamics, the same company working with DHL, to augment the tech company’s new robot named Atlas.
But Reich said among his clients, he’s seeing that “humans are still in the lead.”
“We are also not seeing a replacement of jobs, but a shifting that you’re more looking for skill sets on the market to serve the gap between degree of automation, operational tasks as well as organizational,” Reich told CNBC.
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The automation is angled toward specific jobs, he added, with robots taking over repetitive tasks and companies instead “redirecting” their hiring toward technical roles instead of eliminating job growth altogether.
Reich said the industry is seeing rising investments into automation, with the biggest gains coming not from replacing people, but through increasing the efficiency of the supply chain and warehouse execution processes.
There are also factors in the broader industry that are impacting the workforce, according to Ronny Horvath, the transportation and logistics lead at Accenture. There’s a shortage of skilled workers who have both the manual skills and the organizational skills needed for the sector, and there’s also competition among companies for warehouse personnel based on pay, benefits, lifestyle and more.
“So automation can also help, not replacing but augmenting that gap, that void, that has been left by just not getting the workers that you have today,” Horvath said. “And we see a lot of clients, they have an automation or robotic strategy … but they still have the plans to hire human workers as well.”
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Horvath added that the industry is reaping the rewards of its new technology. He’s seen companies able to adjust to deliver on high demand, increase efficiency and work toward more automated processes to keep up with warehousing.
According to an Accenture study from March, 51% of factories globally expect to have fully automated warehouses by 2040, and 70% of transportation logistics executives treat autonomous supply chains as a top investment priority.
“There’s almost no autonomous structure existing at the moment,” Horvath said. “So most or some of these clients are starting from scratch, and this will take time until these investments are done and until they also reap the benefits out of it for all those areas.”
Jesper Hatletveit Vice President of Investor Relations
Good morning, and welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2025 presentation for the Norwegian Group. My name is Jesper Hatletveit and I’m the VP of Investor Relations here at Norwegian. Today’s presentation will be held by our CEO, Geir Karlsen; and our CFO, Hans-Joergen Wibstad. The presentation will be followed by Q&A from the audience and the web. Please go ahead, Geir.
Geir Karlsen Chief Executive Officer
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Thank you, Jesper. Good morning. Good morning to all of you following this also online. It is a beautiful morning in Oslo. It’s the winter holiday coming up. I heard on the news on the way in here that 80,000 people is leaving Oslo today. And I know that quite a few of them are flying with Norwegian. So, it’s a good day.
Going to the highlights for the quarter and also a little bit on the full year of 2025. EBIT of NOK 21 million. That is an improvement from last year. We have seen passenger growth in both airlines in the quarter. And we are continuing to do well on what we call operational excellence, where we are seeing an improved regularity and punctuality for both airlines compared to the same quarter last year.
On unit costs, as many of you know and remember, we have been guiding a flat CASK for 2025 as a whole, and that’s also where we ended up. That means that the Q4 CASK is slightly up, but for the year, we are sticking to what
SportWest chief executive Troy Kirkham says those within the sport and recreation industry in WA are doing all they can to retain quality staff and maximise facility rationalisation.
With cost-of-living pressures and FIFO employment rising, Mr Kirkham told Business News talent retention was imperative in order for it to remain competitive.
“We are really trying to make sure that we are retaining key individuals, administrators and volunteers, within the sector,” he said.
“That’s always a big challenge. Particularly in WA when you’re in a mining state, where some of the salaries you can get for FIFO (work).
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“It’s one of those things we really need to be mindful of as an industry that we’re still retaining the people that we need to retain within the sector.”
However, a document due to be released soon could aid this process.
“We’ve got a remuneration and benefits report that we do every couple of years,” Mr Kirkham said.
“We’re just in the final stages of finalising that now with CCIWA, so that’ll be a good one for the industry as well about where the benchmarking is around salaries and benefits for the industry.”
Mr Kirkham said it was a hot topic throughout the sector.
“It’s definitely one that I know a lot of the sports are asking us a lot of questions about as well,” he said.
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“They’re looking to get educated and make sure that they stay at the forefront of AI advancements.
“So that’s definitely something that I know the industry is keen to explore and we’ll continue to support them on that.”
The importance of facility rationalisation has increased over the past decade, due to not only to a rise in population, but also greater focus in providing quality facilities for both male and female players at junior and senior level.
“Some of the big challenges which sit there are still infrastructure,” Mr Kirkham said.
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“Making sure we have the right infrastructure in place or rationalising the infrastructure and using it in the right way – not falling into models of delivery that are almost within the past.”
Later this month, SportWest will also host the 2025 WA Sport Awards at Crown Perth, with the event having been held for almost seven decades.
“It’s the preeminent sport awards within WA – and the fact that it recognises everyone from grassroots club level right through to our international and Olympian performers week-in, week-out… it’s one of those awards where you almost pinch yourself because you’re involved with it,” Mr Kirkham said.
Formerly known as “The Dividend Collectuh.” Top 1% of financial experts on TipRanks. Contributing analyst to the iREIT+Hoya Capital investment group. Dividend Collection Agency is not a registered investment professional nor financial advisor and these articles should not be taken as financial advice. This is for educational purposes only and I encourage everyone to do their own due diligence. I’m a Navy veteran who enjoys dividend investing in quality blue-chip stocks, BDC’s, and REITs. I am a buy-and-hold investor who prefers quality over quantity and plans to supplement his retirement income and live off dividends in the next 5-7 years. I aspire to reach and help the hard working, lower and middle class workers build investment portfolios of high quality, dividend-paying companies. I also hope to give investors a new perspective to help them reach financial independence.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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State-owned Engineers India Ltd (EIL) reported an over 3-fold on-year jump in net profit to Rs 302 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2025, driven by strong execution and higher revenues.
The net profit of Rs 301.73 crore in October-December — the third quarter of the current 2025-26 financial year — compared to Rs 88.1 crore earnings in the same period of the previous fiscal, the company said in a statement.
In an investor presentation, EIL said while pre-tax earnings from consultancy business were largely unchanged at Rs 104.3 crore, those from executing turnkey contracts saw a surge to Rs 273.68 crore in Q3 from Rs 18.92 crore a year back.
Turnover rose to 59 per cent to Rs 1,194 crore as revenue from the turnkey business doubled.
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For the nine months ended December 31, 2025, net profit more than doubled to Rs 487 crore, while revenue from operations increased 45 per cent to Rs 2,951 crore.
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The company’s order book stood at Rs 12,538 crore at the end of the third quarter, comprising 60 per cent consultancy and 40 per cent turnkey projects, EIL said. With new mega assignments secured subsequently, the order book has expanded to around Rs 15,670 crore — an all-time high — providing strong revenue visibility going forward.EIL is a leading public sector engineering consultancy and EPC company that provides design, engineering, procurement, construction and project management services across sectors, including oil and gas, petrochemicals, refineries, pipelines, infrastructure, fertilizers, water and waste management, and renewable energy.
The company undertakes consultancy assignments as well as turnkey projects in India and overseas.
In the investor presentation, EIL said it has invested Rs 491 crore for the 26 per cent stake it has picked in the Rs 6,388 crore Ramagundam fertilizer project.
Other partners in the project include National Fertilizer Ltd (26 per cent), Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (11 per cent), GAIL (14.3 per cent) and the Telangana government (11 per cent). The remaining 11.7 per cent is with HTAS Consortium (comprising HT Ramagundam A/S, IFU and Danish Agribusiness Fund, Denmark).
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EIL has also taken a minority 4.37 per cent stake in Numaligarh Refinery in Assam for Rs 838.42 crore.
It fell short of the 0.2 per cent forecast as the services sector registered zero growth
Samuel Norman www.cityam.com
07:27, 12 Feb 2026
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves speaks at a business reception at Lancaster House in central London (Image: PA)
The UK economy experienced modest growth in the fourth quarter of 2025, falling marginally short of predictions as an anticipated lift from the services sector failed to materialise.
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Latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the economy grew a lacklustre 0.1 per cent in the three months to December 2025.
A poll of City economists by Bloomberg had forecast 0.2 per cent growth for the fourth quarter.
This occurred as the services sector, which is frequently regarded as the powerhouse of the economy owing to its substantial contribution of over 80 per cent to GDP, registered no growth during the period.
Production output rose 1.2 per cent whilst construction contracted 2.1 per cent, as reported by City AM.
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“The economy continued to grow slowly in the last three months of the year, with the growth rate unchanged from the previous quarter,” Liz McKeown, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said.
“The often-dominant services sector showed no growth, with the main driver instead coming from manufacturing.”
McKeown added construction recorded its weakest performance in more than four years.
A rise in activity was anticipated by economists following numerous surveys in the final quarter which indicated businesses had suspended their investment plans until uncertainty surrounding the public finances was resolved. Reeves had been anticipated to confront a severe fiscal shortfall following a productivity downgrade.
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However, the Office for Budget Responsibility’s economic forecast subsequently revealed a spike in tax revenues – driven primarily by inflation – which more than compensated for the £16bn downgrade.
Nevertheless, Reeves imposed tax increases totalling £26bn in the Budget, although businesses managed to mitigate some of their gravest concerns.
The elimination of certain fiscal uncertainty was predicted by economists to have triggered a boost in activity following the November Budget.
An Institute of Directors (IoD) survey preceding the Budget demonstrated private sector confidence had tumbled to its lowest level since the industry body began gathering data a decade earlier as tax speculation intensified.
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Economists have raised concerns about a late-year growth surge with Oxford Economics highlighting that any improvement would represent “payback” for declining output during preceding months.
“This appears to be noisy data rather than there being any strong underlying narrative,” Oxford Economics UK economists Andrew Goodwin and Edward Allenby said.
The Bank of England also delivered Reeves a setback during the Monetary Policy Committee’s most recent meeting where they reduced their growth projection for 2026 to 0.9 per cent from 1.2 per cent.
This coincided with a revised growth estimate for 2025 of 1.4 per cent, down from the earlier 1.5 per cent. Simon French, chief economist at Panmure Liberum, stated: “2026 won’t be a vintage year for UK economic performance by historical standards.
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“The composition of economic growth remains overly reliant on public sector spending, and housing wealth.”
Africa emerged as the world’s fastest-growing solar market in 2025, even as global growth slowed, according to a new report from the Africa Solar Industry Association.
The continent’s installed solar capacity rose 17% this year, driven largely by imports of Chinese-made solar panels.
Globally, solar capacity increased 23% to 618 gigawatts (GW) in 2025. While that is still strong growth, it marks a slowdown from the 44% jump seen in 2024.
In contrast, Africa’s steady rise shows a shift in where renewable energy momentum is building.
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“Africa’s growth is driven by changing policies and enabling conditions in a number of countries,” said John Van Zuylen, CEO of the Africa Solar Industry Association.
Speaking at the Inter Solar Africa summit in Nairobi, he added, “Solar energy has moved beyond a handful of early adopters to become a broader continental priority. What we are seeing is not temporary. It is policies aligning with market dynamics.”
According to AP News, Chinese companies have played a key role. “Chinese companies are the main drivers in Africa’s green transition,” said Cynthia Angweya-Muhati, acting CEO of the Kenya Renewable Energy Association.
She noted they are investing heavily in supply chains across the continent’s green energy system.
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Still, not all imported equipment is yet in use. Since 2017, nearly 64 gigawatts peak (GWp) of solar equipment has been shipped to Africa, but only 23.4 GWp is currently working. A gigawatt peak measures the highest possible power output under ideal conditions.
Africa is absolutely CRUSHING it with solar right now!
2025? Record-breaking year. We slapped on about 4.5 gigawatts of new solar panels across the continent — that’s a wild 54% jump from 2024. Fastest growth EVER.
Solar Boom Spreads Across Africa Beyond South Africa
Solar demand is spreading beyond traditional leaders. South Africa once accounted for about half of all solar panel imports to Africa. Now, its share has fallen below one-third as other nations ramp up purchases.
In 2025, 20 African countries set new records for solar imports, and 25 countries each imported at least 100 megawatts, Yahoo reported.
Nigeria overtook Egypt as the second-largest importer, as homes and businesses turned to solar and battery systems instead of diesel generators.
Algeria’s imports jumped more than 30 times compared to the previous year, with Zambia and Botswana also seeing strong growth.
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Battery prices have dropped sharply, falling to $112 per kilowatt-hour in 2025 from $144 in 2023. Lower costs allow families and companies to use solar power day and night. “This ever-decreasing price of storage has game-changing implications for Africa,” Van Zuylen said.
Despite progress, policy uncertainty remains a challenge. “The problem is not the opportunity. It’s visibility,” said Amos Wemanya, senior analyst at Powershift Africa.
“If a government announces a plan, companies need to trust that it will remain in place.”
