Konecranes prepares to ride out recession

Its order book at year-end was €836.3m, 10.3% higher than a year before. Sales grew by 24.4% to €650.4m, while growth at comparable currency rates was 26.7%. Konecranes made an operating profit of €76.5m, or 11.8% of sales, compared with €60.4m a year earlier.

Orders received grew by 10.4% to total €2,067.1m. Sales grew by 20.2% to €2,102.5m (€1,749.7m in 2007) meeting the company’s target of 15–20% growth. Sales growth was seen in all business areas. Profit before taxes was €236.2m, compared with €161.2m the previous year. Earnings per share were €2.82.

Looking to the future, due to the widespread recession Konecranes expects the market for new equipment to decline significantly in Western Europe and North America, and to a lesser extent in emerging markets in 2009. It anticipates that the services market will continue to show more stability than the new equipment market.