21.05.2014

Kobelco Cranes returns to profit

Kobelco Cranes has published its full year results for the year ending March 2014, with revenues up over 24 percent and a return to profit.

Total revenues for the year increased 24.5 percent to ¥56.6 billion ($560 million), while the previous year’s pre-tax loss of ¥2.25 billion ($22.2 million) was converted to a profit of ¥3.2 billion ($31.8 million). The strong surge in sales this year has been driven largely by the domestic market in Japan, although North America also posted stronger sales, thanks to the shale gas sector, while modest increase were also seen in parts of South East Asia. However total exports were only six percent better than the prior year.

Kobelco says that it expects a similar level of increase for 2014/15 with a forecast of ¥730 billion ($721 million), in order to achieve this Kobelco plans to focus on the Asia Pacific region, but is also hoping for improvements in Europe and the Middle East. Its new plants in India and China continue to struggle, but the company is driving down costs by stepping up its efforts to increase local content and improve efficiency.

Vertikal Comment

Kobelco probably builds the best mid-range lattice crawler cranes on the market in terms of quality and reliability. If it has a weak spot though it is its marketing and distribution skills outside of what it considers to be its base – Asia Pacific. This is an issue that it shares with other small to medium sized Japanese equipment manufacturers, and some larger ones. If it could overcome this handicap it could take an even larger slice of the world market.