KCI Konecranes president Stig Gustavson has given a gloomy prognosis on the state of the EOT crane market.

‘The markets for lifting appliances continue on a low level in all parts of the industrial world, with very few exceptions. The same seems to be true for industrial investment spending in general. Previously optimistic forecasts on a coming upturn have generally been downgraded,’ said Gustavson, delivering KCI’s interim results for the first six months of 2002.

But he was upbeat about his own company’s prospects. ‘Our maintenance activities continue to grow, and our new product ranges capture increasing market shares.’

Group sales January to June was Euro 346.8 million, which is 3.2 % down on the same period last year. Maintenance services sales grew 2.4% and special cranes sales stayed at the level of the previous year. Standard lifting equipment sales fell 17.5% year-on-year.

Operating income amounted to Euro 13.3 million, which is 36.0% lower than the record level of last year. Operating income grew in both maintenance services and special cranes, but decreased in standard lifting equipment. Cost cutting in the business area was not sufficient to compensate for the sales decline, said Gustavson, and also price competition tightened further.

Pre-tax profit was Euro 12.7 million, down from Euro 19.6 million for the same period in 2001.

Order intake during the period from January to June 2002 was Euro 327.3 million, which is 11.6% down from last year’s Euro 370.3 million. Orders received grew, however, during the second quarter of 2002 compared to the previous quarter by 13.8% and the growth was 10.6% against the second quarter of 2001. The order book was Euro 269.6 million at the end of June, which is 21.8% down from a year earlier. Approximately two thirds of the order book value relates to special cranes.

The maintenance contract base grew 8.4% during the six month period to more than 201,500 cranes and lifting devices under contract.

Orders received during the April/May/June second quarter include:

* General Motors Tool & Die, Flint, Michigan placed an order for components to upgrade 4 existing P&H Cranes including new motors, drives and radio control. This order gives KCI Konecranes the opportunity to supply its full range of services directly to General Motors including inspections, new equipment and spare parts.

* First Energy of Ohio, USA, has requested that Crane Pro Services (KCI Konecranes’ US service organisation) including Drivecon, our American drives operation, modernize the drives, controls, motors and brakes on its 180/25 ton Polar Crane at the Davis Besse Nuclear Facility in Oak Harbor.

* Konecranes VLC has signed a contract with ZAO First Container Terminal (FCT) for two panamax ship-to-shore container cranes for St Petersburg, Russia.

* BILK Kombiterminal Rt. of Hungary ordered two container gantry cranes for a new intermodal terminal south of Budapest.

* Orders for waste to energy cranes included several cranes to Hässleholm Fjärrvärme and Osby Fjärrvärme both located in Sweden and two cranes to Silea Spa of Italy.

* M-real ordered several paper mill cranes and modernisation of existing cranes at its mill in Sittingbourne, UK

* Siemens of Germany ordered several power plant cranes with special hook for lifting turbine rotors for the Al Shuweihat power plant in the United Arab Emirates.

* Alcan Rolled Products ordered a special crane for handling rolled products of aluminium at its plant in Rogerstone, South Wales, UK.

* Shandong Bohui Paper Co. in China ordered three sets of electric overhead travelling cranes, including both wet and dry end paper mill cranes.

* KCI Konecranes was awarded a multi crane project from GTI including in total 15 CXT cranes for GTI’s new manufacturing shop in Beek, The Netherlands.