08.08.2007

Strong first half for Palfinger

Palfinger the loader cranes to truck mounted boom lift manufacturer has reported sales for the first six months of 2007 of €340.6 million, an increase of almost 18 percent.

Palfinger suggests that order intake increased at a faster rate than sales, leading to a strong backlog at the half years stage.

Earnings before interest and tax were €51 million, an increase of 31 percent, while net after tax profits climbed by almost 38 percent to €39.2 million.

While a continuing strong performance in the company’s European crane business continues to drive the group’s success, it says that all sectors of the business, made a positive financial contribution. The first time that this has happened since the business was restructured back in 2004.


Wolfgang Anzengruber, Palfinger’s chief executive, said: “During the past six months we continued to profit from the very strong cranes business in the European core markets and from the high capacity utilisation in our production areas. The current expansion of our capacities and the positive development in the field of hydraulic systems support our growth.”

Palfinger says that the price increase it implemented at the start of 2007 have not had any significant impact on the of the company’s bottom line due to the fact that it’s large backlog was sold at 2006 prices.

It now expects the benefits of those increases to improve its second half.

The company is also preparing to increase and extend its current €80 million investment programme which comes to an end in the new year. The extension is likely to cover further increases in production capacity together with equipment to improve both efficiency and quality.

Outlook

Palfinger is hedging its best for the second half, stating that it does not expect to see the same year on year growth as the first half, due to comparison with a very strong second half in 2006.

Vertikal Comment

Palfinger continues to benefit form the effort s that it has put in since 2004, in its key crane market the company, already the market leader, is claiming to be making further gains in market share.

The European market for loader cranes is certainly strong at the moment, and Palfinger is well placed to benefit form that strength, however both Hiab and Atlas are making come backs, while Fassi is bound and determined to take a bigger slice of the cake.

With several crane companies investing heavily in new product development perhaps it is going to be the smaller players who fall by the wayside leaving the industry consolidated around five larger producers?