Jungheinrich Maintains Upward Trend

Aug 21, 2011 Warehousing Ireland News 0

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Dynamic Material Handling Equipment Market Trend/Incoming Orders Post Strong Growth/Production Output Rises Considerably/Earnings Trend Further Improved

Hamburg—The Jungheinrich Group continued its upward trend in the second quarter of 2011, successfully closing the first half of 2011 with a rise in incoming orders, sales and earnings. The company’s business performance benefited from the fact that world economic conditions remained favourable, which resulted in a significant enlargement in the world market for material handling equipment.

The dynamic development displayed by material handling equipment in the first quarter of 2011 continued on the back of persistently strong market growth. Demand was up 27 per cent in the second quarter of 2011. Accordingly, in the first half of 2011, the global market expanded by 33 per cent to 505.2 thousand forklifts (prior year: 379.0 thousand units). All regions contributed to this growth, recording varying rates of increase, which differed significantly in some cases. Once again, Europe posted the biggest gain (38 per cent) this year. Whereas Western Europe achieved a rise of some 33 per cent, demand in Eastern Europe increased by 68 per cent. Asia’s market volume grew by 29 per cent. The North American market experienced a 33 per cent increase.

The value of incoming orders, encompassing all business areas, rose by 24 per cent to 597 million euros in the second quarter of 2011 (prior year: 482 million euros). As a result, it was also up 24 per cent in the first half of the year, climbing to 1,135 million euros (prior year: 915 million euros). As of June 30, 2011, orders on hand from new truck business totalled 418 million euros and were thus 137 million euros, or 49 per cent, higher than at the end of 2010. The order reach was extended to a good 5 months.

Production output, which tracked the development of incoming orders with a time lag, grew by about 25 per cent in the second quarter of 2011 to 18.1 thousand trucks (prior year: 14.6 thousand units). Production output in the first half of 2011 thus amounted to 37.0 thousand forklifts (prior year: 27.4 thousand units) advancing by 35 per cent over last year’s comparable figure.

In the second quarter of 2011, net sales climbed by some 15 per cent to 515 million euros (prior year: 446 million euros). In the first half of 2011, consolidated net sales were thus up a cumulative 18 per cent to 987 million euros (prior year: 833 million euros). Nearly all the divisions contributed to the big uptick in net sales. New truck business posted the largest increase, gaining 30 per cent. Overall, the short-term hire and used equipment business recorded a rise of 6 per cent. Achieving a gain of over 7 per cent, net sales generated by after-sales services posted above-average growth.

 

“The upward earning trend displayed by Jungheinrich at the beginning of the year continued to accelerate in the second quarter of 2011. It benefited above all from the increase in production output at the plants as well as their continued rise in capacity utilization and an improved product mix. The marked expansion of the short-term hire equipment business and the strong growth in after-sales services operations also had an earnings-enhancing effect,” declared Hans-Georg Frey, Chairman of the Board of Management.

In the second quarter of 2011, operative earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) advanced to 37.6 million euros (prior year: 25.7 million euros). On a cumulative basis, first-half earnings improved to 67.9 million euros (prior year: 37.7 million euros). By the mid-year point, the corresponding return on sales had grown to 6.9 per cent (prior year: 4.5 per cent).

Net income rose to 27.1 million euros in the second quarter of 2011 (prior year: 16.5 million euros) reaching a cumulative 48.8 million euros in the first half of 2011 (prior year: 24.8 million euros). Corresponding earnings per preferred share for the first half of 2011 advanced to 1.47 euros (prior year: 0.76 euros).

Based on the dynamic market trend recorded in the first half of 2011, Jungheinrich expects the world market to grow by over 20 per cent in size to more than 960 thousand forklifts for 2011 as a whole. “In the second half of the year, Jungheinrich’s business performance will continue to be dominated by growth and shaping the future. To this end, we will improve our market share in individual regions and enlarge our sales footprint in the growth markets of Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America,” says Hans-Georg Frey.

In view of the expected growth of the world market and the development witnessed in the first half of 2011, Jungheinrich is raising its forecasts for 2011 once again and now anticipates that incoming orders will advance to over 2.1 billion euros (previous prognosis: more than 2.0 billion euros) and that consolidated net sales will increase to substantially more than 2.0 billion euros (previous prognosis: over 1.95 billion euros). Building on this, the Jungheinrich Group will probably generate operating earnings in excess of 130 million euros (previous prognosis: over 120 million euros).  

 

Jungheinrich ranks among the world’s leading companies in the material handling equipment, warehousing and material flow engineering sectors. The company is an intralogistics service and solution provider with manufacturing operations, which offers its customers a comprehensive range of forklift trucks, shelving systems, services and advice. Jungheinrich shares are traded on all German stock exchanges.

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