Konecranes sees orders and operating profit improving

In the full year, orders received totalled EUR1.536m, up 13.9% with Service and Equipment up 21.5% and 7.5% respectively, although sales at EUR1,546.3m fell by 7.5% and Equipment by 14.9% but Service increased by 6.1%. The forecast for year 2011 is for sales and operating profit to be higher than in 2010.

The company said that the demand for maintenance services is expected to be above last year’s level due to higher capacity utilisation within customer industries. The demand for new equipment is expected to continue to grow in Asia-Pacific and in emerging markets in general. Also, customers in Western Europe and North America are gradually gaining enough confidence to increase their new equipment investments.

Konecranes President and CEO Pekka Lundmark said, “The market conditions affecting our industry took a positive turn in the second half of 2010, after some 1.5 years of very low demand among our most important customer segments. This improvement was driven by gradually improving capacity utilisation rates in our key markets. The recovery remained fragile, however, as many customers continued to be cautious in taking decisions on new equipment investments.