LOGISTICS giant Brambles has reversed two months of damage to its share price after indicating it is close to sealing a crucial deal with its biggest US customer, Wal-Mart.

Brambles shares climbed 67¢ — a rise of almost 9% — to close at $8.15 after the company expressed it was confident of a "positive outcome" from its talks with Wal-Mart.

The share surge enabled Brambles to claw back $927 million of the $3.5 billion in market value lost since Wal-Mart announced in April that it would review its distribution systems.

Wal-Mart accounts for 25% of Brambles' Chep pallet business in the US. The retailer has, at any one time, 8 million of Chep's pallets on site at its 60 distribution centres.

Chief executive Mike Ihlein refused to go into detail about the agreement, but indicated at a trading update for investors that an announcement was not far away.

"Wal-Mart remains an advocate of pallet pooling, and both Chep and Wal-Mart support the supply chain benefits of total pallet management," he said. "An announcement on the final outcome will be made as soon as discussions are concluded."

Brambles had insisted the Wal-Mart move would have no impact on Chep's volumes or sales revenue, but the review unsettled investors worried about Brambles' exposure to the global economy and a recession in the US.

Mr Ihlein, and finance director Liz Doherty, sought to head off those doubts, tipping a solid profit this year from rising sales and a program to contain fuel costs, which would allow the company to ride out the tough economic conditions.

Brambles' sales for the 11 months to the end of May were 13% higher than the previous corresponding period. In the US and Europe, Brambles won 2400 new contracts worth $US180 million ($A189 million) in annual sales.

In the US, Chep won a contract with Tyson Foods, the world's largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef and pork. "This is the largest customer win by Chep USA for several years," Mr Ihlein said.

In the market update, Brambles said it had defied a "challenging economic environment".

Mr Ihlein said for the 11-month period, transport costs made up the same share of revenue as the previous year.

Mr Ihlein said Chep would spend $US20 million of its $US100 million investment program in quality and innovation this financial year.

"Brambles' balance sheet remains strong, with committed credit facilities of $US4 billion, of which $US1.4 billion is unutilised," he said. "No major refinancing is required before 2010."