06.02.2020

Record profits for Hiab

Hiab – part of Cargotec – has reported an 18 percent jump in full year sales to €1.36 billion. While order intake over the 12 months was four percent higher at €1.31 billion, leaving an order book of €406 million, 10 percent down on the year. Operating profits reached record levels at €159.3 million, 19 percent higher than for 2018.

Looking at the fourth quarter Hiab revenues improved 16 percent to €368 million, maintaining the year’s growth trends. Order intake however was 10 percent lower than for the same quarter last year at €322 million, operating profit however spiked upwards, rising 40 percent to €48.3 million.

Sister company Kalmar also had a good year, with revenues up six percent to €1.72 billion, although order intake for the year was seven percent lower at €1.78 billion, still outpacing shipments, and leaving the order book four percent higher at €1.05 billion. Operating income was 12 percent higher at €154.4 million.

In the fourth quarter sales were also six percent higher at €471 million, while order intake slipped one percent to €446 million and operating profit declined 13 percent to €41.2 million.

Cargotec as a while reported full year revenues of €3.7 billion, 11 percent up on the year, while pre-tax profits declined nine percent to €145.9 -thanks to losses at MacGregor.

Chief executive Mika Vehviläinen said: “Similar to the previous year 2019 was twofold in Cargotec. Kalmar and Hiab achieved record high operating profits while MacGregor was loss making. Our comparable operating profit increased by nine percent, but mainly due to restructuring costs in MacGregor, the group’s operating profit decreased by five percent.”

“Hiab’s result was particularly good. The business area’s order intake increased by four percent and comparable operating profit by 27 percent compared to the previous year. The result improved due to higher sales. We managed to solve the supply chain related challenges that started in 2018. This was also visible in Hiab’s order backlog that returned to a normalised level.”

“Kalmar’s order book was positively affected by increased demand of port automation solutions. Customers are now taking concrete steps towards automation investments and consider how and when they could automate their sites. Demand of mobile equipment trended downwards at the end of the year. Nevertheless, Kalmar managed to improve its comparable operating profit by 13 percent.”

MacGregor’s situation remained challenging. Order intake excluding TTS acquisition remained at the previous year’s level. The business area’s sales and comparable operating profit decreased further in the subdued market environment. During the year, we conducted significant restructuring actions in MacGregor, and we expect the results to be visible in our result this year.”

“Due to market uncertainties, our visibility on 2020 is limited, but I think that we have a solid foundation. Our order book is strong and, thanks to TTS integration and other ongoing restructuring actions, MacGregor’s result is expected to improve. We expect service business’ growth and the group wide savings and efficiency programmes to support our result development. We will continue our efforts to develop our corporate structure and improve our cost efficiency that may result in restructurings in 2020.”

Vertikal Comment

Hiab is clearly on a roll and has real momentum as it looks to regain market leadership in its core loader crane market. The company has been actively expanding and refining its sales and distribution as well as ramping up its marketing efforts. Its new products look sounds and it has a great deal of potential at the higher end of the market with its Effer product line.
All in all a very good result.