18.07.2013

Hiab picks up

Cargotec has reported its half year results with improvements in the Hiab and Kalmar divisions and a fall at MacGregor.

Hiab reported flat half year revenues, at €413 million, plus a seven percent decline in orders to €424 million resulting a fall in operating income from €12.8 to €7.9 million, however all of this was down to a bad first quarter. In the second three months of the year, the business saw revenues rise by five percent to €221 million, on flat order intake at €208 million translating into an 11 percent improvement in operating income.

Interestingly sales were buoyed by strong Europe/Mid-East region results while Asia and the Americas were down. However the opposite was true when it came to order intake.

Kalmar reported a three percent rise in first half sales to €727 million, although order intake dropped 17 percent to €707 million, reflecting a large order last year than a softening market. Operating income though edged up very marginally to €21.5 million. Looking at the second quarter revenues improved six percent to €405 million, on orders down 34% to €342 million. Operating profit slipped back just over six percent to €14.5 million.

Cargotec as a whole had revenues of €1.51 billion – down eight percent on the year, while pre-tax profits plummeted from €73.6 million last year to €40.4 million this year. The second quarter was slightly better with a two percent fall in revenues and 24 percent drop in pre-tax profits.

Cargotec chief executive Mika Vehviläinen said: “Both market activity and our orders continued to develop as estimated during the second quarter, even though we fell seven percent short from the comparison period, as the second quarter lacked new large Kalmar projects. Orders for cargo handling equipment for offshore support vessels accounted for almost half of MacGregor's orders, and orders for the business area as a whole rose by 67 percent on the comparison period. Hiab's orders reached the level of the comparison period.”

“Volumes in the marine cargo handling market are lower than last year, which is reducing our sales. Favourable trends were seen in both Kalmar and Hiab's delivery volumes and profitability during the second quarter. We are continuing our efforts to improve our profitability.”

“In July, we took an important strategic step in MacGregor's development by signing an agreement to acquire Hatlapa. Hatlapa supports MacGregor's growth strategy and will help MacGregor to become a global leader in winches for various ship types.”

Vertikal Comment

While these numbers do not say much either way, they are lacklustre at best, the trend is positive though and the move back towards business unit separation and de-centralisation should begin to yield better results as the year progresses.