20.07.2009

Hiab drops 39%

Loader crane company Hiab has posted first half revenues down 39 percent on 2008, sister company Kalmar was down 18 percent.

Loader crane company Hiab has posted first half revenues of €292 million, down 39 percent on 2008, Order intake for the period was €268 million, a fall of 43 percent, leaving an order book at the end of June of €138 million, down 16 percent since the end of December.

Most of Hiab’s order intake was made up of small individual orders, typical of its operations, although in February, Hiab received an order for 292 loader cranes from BAE Systems in the US and in May, an order for 60 loader cranes and 39 hooklifts for the Finnish Defence Forces.

Operating profits were a loss of €20 million compared to a profit of €36 million during the same period last year.

Kalmar

Kalmar, the reachstacker and cargo handling division of Cargotec, that is due to be merged with Hiab, reported revenues of €588 million, down 18 percent on the same period last year, while order intake in the first half plummeted 52 percent, leaving the divisions order book at €514 million compared to €704 million at the end of December.

Kalmar reported an operating profit of €19.3 million, compared to €51.7 million last year.

Cargotec as a whole, saw revenues of €1.35 billion, a fall of 17 percent, while order intake fell 57 percent to €928 million leaving an order book at the end of June of €2.55 billion down €500 million in six months.

Pre tax profits for the year was a loss of €17.9 million, compared with a profit of €96 million for the first half of 2008.

Cargotec chief executive Mikael Mäkinen said:
"As stated earlier, demand continued weak during the second quarter. The whole first half of 2009 has been an extremely challenging time in cargo handling, and has required heavy restructuring of our operations. Our global supply footprint will change significantly during this year. Additionally, we aim for a clearly better and more efficient operating model in our sales and services network. The strong cash flow during the first half is an excellent achievement in this market situation."

Cargotec has announced that it will merge its Hiab and Kalmar businesses while moving towards a ‘one company’ policy with greater use of the Cargotec name and Hiab Elephant logo.