Lufthansa Cargo hopes to sign another airline partnership to build on the success of last year's tie-up with Japan's ANA and take advantage of the favorable environment for German exports, the freight arm of the German airline said. With fuel prices low and a weak euro supporting exports from Germany, Lufthansa Cargo is expecting a good year. "The first two months were good," Chief Executive Peter Gerber told Reuters after the company's annual press conference. "The German export industry is being helped by falling energy costs and the weak euro. Strong exports are good for us and so I'm optimistic," he said. Germany's BGA trade association raised its forecast for exports last week, expecting the weaker euro to offset uncertainty surrounding crises in Greece and Ukraine. Lufthansa Cargo also said the ANA partnership, which started in December, had enabled it to send an extra 300 consignments via the Japanese carrier that it would otherwise not have been able to take on because its planes were already full. The partnership so far covers routes from Japan but will be expanded to include service from Europe this summer. Gerber told journalists the company was in talks with other parties interested in a similar partnership but declined to give further details due to the anti-trust approvals needed for such revenue-sharing partnerships. Lufthansa's Cargo arm last year saw adjusted earnings before interest and tax rise by a quarter to 123 million euros ($131.6 million) after a strong end to the year. It expects a slight increase this year. However, the company is waiting on several investment decisions as parent Lufthansa Group reins in its spending. Lufthansa is due to decide this year whether to approve plans for a new 700 million euro cargo centre and has again deferred a decision on whether to exercise the first of five options for new 777F freighters until September. "Given the situation in the group with the (labour) strikes, it's not getting any easier to get approval for investments," Gerber said of the new freight centre. Lufthansa faces strong opposition from pilot unions as it tries to cut costs and expand low-cost operations, with frequent strikes costing the airline an estimated 15 million euros a day in lost profit, according to analysts. (Reuters)