13.02.2025

Stable year for Hiab

Loader crane manufacturer Hiab, Cargotec as officially remains for now, has published its full year and fourth quarter results.

Full year
Total revenues €1.65 billion -8%
Order intake €1.51 billion +3%
Order book/backlog €648 million -19%

Pre-tax Profit €213.4 million +4%

Fourth Quarter
Total revenues €412 million -8%
Order intake €4i4 million +3%

Pre-tax profit €39.3 million +10%

Chief executive Casimir Lindholm said: “The year 2024 was a successful one for Cargotec. We reached all our major goals for the year, continued the good business performance, completed the separation of Hiab and Kalmar, and found a solution for MacGregor.”

“The market environment remained complex throughout the year. Expectations on lower interest rates and uncertainty in some of Hiab’s key geographies and industries delayed customer decision making. The growth in order intake was driven by the Americas. Due to the normalised supply chain, our order book decreased to €648 million. However, our book to bill was positive in the fourth quarter.”

“Despite lower sales, we were able to improve our relative profitability with successful management of inflationary pressures as well as sourcing and supply chain actions. I’m convinced that Hiab will have a bright future as a standalone company, this year, Hiab continues investing to increase productivity and profitability for example by streamlining the production setup in Italy and renewing product and service operations in Ireland and in the UK.”

“As the name change takes place, Scott Phillips will become the chief executive of the renamed company, and I will step down. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the shareholders, the board of directors as well as all the current and former colleagues, partners, and customers for making 2024 another successful year for the company.”

Vertikal Comment

While this year’s results are not fantastic, especially in terms of invoicing, they do show a positive trend emerging, with order intake picking up and profitability improving. The new company is also debt free and in a great place financially. The Cargotec name goes in April, while the MacGregor sale is due to complete by July.

The key thing now is what the new chief executive and his team do with what is a great legacy. At this point the future looks bright – it just needs good onward going management to build on what has been achieved since Cargotec abandoned its conglomerate centralisation policies in the last decade.
We might even see Hiab regain market leadership. Watch out Palfinger!