Konecranes' equipment orders for the first half of 2011 totalled EUR963.7 million (USD1.39 billion) or 40.7% higher than last year's EUR684.9 million (USD988 million).

Orders received grew 18.3% in the service division and by 58.6% in the equipment division, compared to a year before. All geographic areas contributed to the increase, with strongest growth coming from the Americas, followed by the Asia-Pacific region.

Group sales for the period grew 24% from a year ago and totalled EUR847.3 million (USD1.222 billion), compared to last year's 683.3 million (USD985.7 million). Sales in the service division rose by 13% and in the equipment division by 29.9%.

Group CEO Pekka Lundmark says the company can be satisfied with its top line growth, in particular, with the fact that its order book is now 43.2% stronger than a year ago.

"A tight pricing environment and cost inflation, combined with our own decisions to increase technology and IT development spending to ensure our competitiveness in the long run is, unfortunately, slowing bottom-line growth. Increasing prices wherever possible and a tight cost control are clear priorities for us right now," Lundmark says.

Operating profit for the period was EUR43.6 million (USD66.8 million), 35.4% higher than the previous year's EUR32.2 million (USD46.4 million). In the January-June period, the group employed about 10,637 people compared to 9,638 the year before.