Cargotec has revised up its 2024 outlookFinnish cargo handling machinery producer Cargotec increased its operating profit, started the sales process for MacGregor and finalised the demerger process from its Kalmar heavy cranes business in the second half of the year, with Kalmar now listed as a separate entity on the Finish Trade Register.
The demerger has seen Cargotec update its segment reporting with all figures in its half yearly financial report no longer including Kalmar.
Cargotec has revised up its 2024 outlook for its two remaining reporting segments - Hiab and MacGregor. Published in February, the initial outlook had Hiab’s comparable operating profit for the year to be above 12%; it is now expected to be above 13.5%. The forecast for MacGregor’s comparable operating profit had been “to improve from 2023” (EUR33 million, USD36 million); it is now expected to be above EUR55 million (USD60.2 million).
Cargotec orders received in the April-June quarter increased 4% year-on-year to EUR584 million (USD637 million), while jumping 8% y-o-y for H1 to EUR 1.24 billion (USD1.35 billion).
Sales for Q2 fell 4% y-o-y to total EUR625 million (USD682 million), while for H1 they were steady at EUR1.24 billion (USD1.35 billion).
Cargotec’s comparable operating profit in Q2 2024 increased 2% y-o-y to EUR82 million (USD89.5 million), representing 13.1% of sales. For H1 its comparable operating profit increased 18% y-o-y to EUR153 million (USD167 million), which represents 12.3% of sales.
Cargotec president and chief executive officer Casimir Lindholm says: “The market environment remained mixed as high interest rates and uncertainty in some of Hiab’s key geographies and industries continued to delay customer decision making. On the other hand, MacGregor continued to benefit from the strong ship building cycle.
“We strongly believe that Hiab will continue its profitable growth…This is reflected in the new long-term financial targets set for 2028 which were published in May: Hiab targets to continue to grow over 7% over the cycle and to reach a comparable operating profit of 18% (as a business area of Cargotec), and deliver an over 25 % operative ROCE.
“Setting Hiab-specific financial targets is also a major milestone on Hiab’s journey to become a standalone company,” he adds
Cargotec says starting the sales process for MacGregor has been “a major step … in finding a solution for MacGregor”.
In 2022, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority blocked the proposed USD5 billion merger of Cargotec and Konecranes.