Gordon Riske

The KION Group's forklift orders have expanded over the past year, with the total value of its order intake rising by more than 11% in the second quarter over the same period in 2013.

The group's order intake reached EUR1.228 billion (USD1.636 billion) for the second quarter - an increase of over 11%. Unit numbers rose by about 14%. The group's order intake climbed by 13.9% to almost 40,800 units in the second quarter. In the first six months, the company's order intake was up by 8.4% to 79,900 units.

The total value of orders grew by 7.7% to EUR2.424 billion (USD3.229 billion) in the first half of the year, with an 11.1% jump in the second quarter to EUR1.228 billion (USD1.636 billion).

Second-quarter earnings before interest and tax advanced by 1.7% year on year to EUR109.5 million (USD145.9 million).

The group outperformed the market as a whole (growth of 8.9%) in the second quarter in unit sales. Its unit order intake in Western Europe increased by 18.2% during this period and it also generated stronger growth than the overall Chinese market, both in the second quarter (up by 16.5%) and in the first six months of the year (up by 17.5%). The company also registered its highest-ever unit sales for a quarter in China in the period April to June 2014. In Eastern Europe, the KION Group achieved unit growth of 20.7% in the second quarter.

"The second quarter showed that the KION Group is clearly benefiting from the recovery of the Western European market and, at the same time, is strengthening its position in key emerging markets such as China," says CEO Gordon Riske. "The capital expenditure announced for our core plants in Aschaffenburg and Hamburg and our new factory in the Czech Republic (Forkliftaction.com News #676) will provide additional long-term support for our trajectory of profitable growth."

The global market for industrial trucks improved in both the second quarter of 2014 and the first six months of the year. Driven mainly by growth in Western Europe and China, orders worldwide advanced by 8.9% year on year to approximately 284,400 trucks in the second quarter (H1 2014: 556,300 trucks, an increase of 9.3%). In the period April to June, Western Europe registered growth of 14.0% (H1 2014: growth of 12.1%), while China's orders were up by 12.6% (H1 2014: up by 15.0 ).