DHL Group’s second quarter fell in line with company expectations as the logistics giant navigates a freight recession and subdued global economic growth. The Germany-based firm saw revenues jump 2.7 percent to 20.6 billion euros ($22.5 billion) on net income of 744 million euros ($812 million).

At its freight forwarding business, DHL saw ocean freight volume growth of 6 percent to 847,000 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs), while air freight jumped 5 percent to 437,000 TEUs. These second-quarter freight volumes maintained similar year-over-year growth as in the first quarter, according to DHL Group chief financial officer Melanie Kreis.

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While there remain disruptions in ocean freight markets, the volume growth also reflects improving demand, with Kreis observing that customers are starting to realign their orders with underlying demand after long periods of destocking.

For the first time in nearly three years, the second quarter saw all five divisions at DHL registering an increase in revenue. DHL Express saw a 1.6 percent revenue bump to 6.2 billion euros ($6.8 billion), while the global freight forwarding unit inched up 0.8 percent to 4.9 billion euros ($5.3 billion). DHL Supply Chain’s revenue increased 2.8 percent to 4.4 billion euros ($4.7 billion), while e-commerce had the largest spike at 10.5 percent to 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion).

Post & Parcel Germany saw a revenue uptick of 4.1 percent to 4.2 billion euros ($4.5 billion).

However, of the divisions, only DHL Supply Chain and Post & Parcel Germany incurred positive earnings before interest and tax (EBIT).

“In a nutshell, as we call it on our side, it’s not a broad-based acceleration yet, but some signals of the expected improvement in market conditions seem to be emerging,” Kreis said during the company’s earnings call.

Like U.S.-based competitor UPS unveiled last month, DHL will be implementing its own demand surcharges, which will come into effect for DHL Express customers Sept. 15. According to Kreis, the surcharges will be “trade-lane based,” with outbound product out of Asia being the highest.

Kreis alluded to the flood of air cargo shipped by Shein and Temu as a reason for the implementation of the demand surcharges.

“Seasonality got more extreme over the last year,” Kreis said. “The situation, particularly on the aviation side, got much more complex now, and with the arrival of the Chinese e-commerce players, capacity constraints out of China and Asia overall have become even more pronounced. We will have to spend more to make sure that we deliver the expected service quality to our customers, and in order to be able to do so, we are asking for the demand surcharge.”