Airport Towing Trucks For Material Handling

Increases in Incoming Orders, Sales and Earnings / Sales Forecast Lifted Slightly / Capital Expenditures up Year on Year

Hamburg—The Jungheinrich Group maintained its course for growth in the third quarter of 2012 and posted gains in incoming orders, sales and earnings. The company slightly raised its sales forecast for the full year in view of the good level of orders on hand. Capital expenditures were markedly up on the same period last year as a result of strategic large-scale projects designed to expand spare parts logistics and manufacturing capacity.

The essentially stable lateral movement displayed by the world material handling equipment market continued in the third quarter of 2012. The global market was a mere 2 per cent smaller than in last year's comparable quarter. Worldwide cumulative demand from January to September 2012 dropped to 716.3 thousand forklift trucks, falling below the 737.9 thousand units by a marginal 3 per cent. Developments continued to display regional differences. After nine months, in Europe, Jungheinrich's core market, demand was 6 per cent down on last year's corresponding figure. Western Europe's 7 per cent decline played a role, whereas the size of the Eastern European market remained unchanged. Characterized by a disproportionately significant shrinkage of the Chinese market, Asia's market volume decreased by 4 per cent year on year during the same period. The North American market experienced another significant rise, posting a 7 per cent increase.

After nine months, the value of incoming orders, including all business areas, had advanced by 5 per cent to 1,720 million euros (prior year: 1,632 million euros). This corresponds to a 17 per cent increase to 580 million euros in the third quarter of 2012 (prior year: 497 million euros). Orders on hand from new truck business increased marginally in the third quarter of 2012 and amounted to 404 million euros as of September 30, 2012—up 75 million euros, or 23 per cent, on the value on the books at the end of 2011 (239 million euros). The order reach was a little over four months.

Net sales in the third quarter of 2012 climbed by 4 per cent to 546 million euros (prior year: 525 million euros). Cumulative net sales after nine months were up 7 per cent to 1,620 million euros (prior year: 1,512 million euros). Both domestic and foreign business made equal contributions to this increase. Sales in Germany were up about 7 per cent to 435 million euros (prior year: 406 million euros). Foreign sales also climbed by some 7 per cent, to 1,185 million euros (prior year: 1,106 million euros). Accordingly, the foreign ratio remained flat, at 73 per cent.

All business areas contributed to the uptick in net sales. The largest gain was recorded by new truck operations, which achieved a rate of increase of 12 per cent, driving up sales to 881 million euros (prior year: 788 million euros). System activities were a key driver of the growth in sales posted by new truck business. Overall, short-term hire and used equipment operations posted a rise of 9 per cent to 277 million euros (prior year: 255 million euros). This was predominantly due to the significant increase in demand for trucks for short-term hire. Net sales generated by after-sales services climbed by 5 per cent to 500 million euros (prior year: 476 million euros), continuing their steady rise.

The Jungheinrich Group's solid earnings trend continued in the third quarter of 2012. A positive impact was felt in particular from the favourable product mix and the growth of the short-term hire and after-sales services businesses. Operating earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to 38.5 million euros in this period, slightly surpassing the figure posted in the same quarter last year (38.3 million euros). Cumulative EBIT after the first nine months of this year improved to 111.2 million euros (prior year: 106.2 million euros). The corresponding return on sales reached 6.9 per cent as of September 30, 2012, falling just short of the year-earlier figure (7.0 per cent). In the third quarter of 2012, net income amounted to 27.7 million euros (prior year: 27.8 million euros), totalling a cumulative 80.9 million euros (prior year: 76.6 million euros). Accordingly, earnings per preferred share for the period from January to September 2012 improved to 2.41 euros (prior year: 2.28 euros).

The Jungheinrich Group's balance sheet total had risen by 139 million euros to 2,719 million euros as of September 30, 2012 (12/31/2011: 2,580 million euros). Continued business growth and the associated improvement in earnings were a major contributor. The equity ratio rose to 28.5 per cent (12/31/2011: 27.8 per cent). Progress made in construction work for large-scale capex projects to expand spare parts logistics and manufacturing capacity was increasingly felt on the equity and liabilities side. After nine months, capital expenditures on tangible and intangible assets had increased significantly year on year, having jumped by 28 million euros to 51 million euros.

As regards the development of business through the end of 2012, Jungheinrich continues to expect world trade to post moderate growth, still differing substantially from one region to the next. With respect to the market volume for material handling equipment, the company merely anticipates a marginal unit-based decline to some 950,000 units over the year as a whole, corresponding to a drop of just under 3 per cent, despite the clouded economic environment, above all in Europe.

Based on the prognosticated market trend and under the condition that the development of business witnessed in the first nine months continues, Jungheinrich expects incoming orders to exceed 2.2 billion euros along with consolidated sales of over 2.15 billion euros for fiscal 2012. The sales trend will benefit from the high level of orders on hand as of September 30, 2012. Against this backdrop, the company is confident of being able to achieve operating earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) nearly on par with last year's level.

Jungheinrich does not expect the conditions underlying the world economy to improve markedly in 2013. In view of the persistent risks to the development of the global economy, the world material handling equipment market's lateral movement is likely to continue next year. Says Hans-Georg Frey, Chairman of the Board of Management of Jungheinrich AG: “Jungheinrich's robust financial power is the prerequisite for implementing the strategic investment projects in 2013 even if framework conditions prove to be more difficult and for maintaining the high level of research and development activity observed this year."

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.