Cargotec will invest in R&D.

Cargotec president and CEO Mika Vehviläinen is hailing 2015 as a milestone for his company. "The profitability improvement measures initiated two years ago were reached ahead of time, and the financial performance has changed direction," he says.

"The improved profitability will enable investments supporting our strategy. The new strategy will offer us excellent opportunities to further develop our business."

Vehviläinen's comments come in the annual review for 2015 which shows sales growth of 11% and a 6.2% rise in the operating profit margin.

Total orders exceeded USD4 billion and its operating profit reached more than USD239 million, compared to more than USD142 million recorded in 2014.

Cargotec's 2016 sales are expected to be at the 2015 level or slightly below.

Vehviläinen says Kalmar and Hiab reached their profitability targets ahead of time by the end of Q2, 2015, but MacGregor's market situation is challenging. However, he is "confident that we are taking the correct measures in order to adapt to the situation in that business area".

"Orders received were strong in the fourth quarter in Kalmar and Hiab, and therefore, orders for the full year of 2015 reached the previous year's level, despite clearly lower orders for MacGregor.

"We see attractive opportunities in executing our strategy by further investing in growing our businesses, which, in our view, increases shareholder value best."

Vehviläinen stresses that Cargotec "will invest in R&D in order to ensure that our products remain market leaders and ahead of our competitors' products".

According to the results announcement, "Cargotec's ambition is to become the leader in intelligent cargo handling by building on services, digitalisation and people leadership.

"Cargotec will invest in R&D, digitalisation and developing internal capabilities in order to speed up this transformation and support profitable growth.

"The goal for each of the three business areas is to reach 10% operating profit margin (EBIT) over the cycle and grow faster than the market. Cargotec's goals are to reach 15% return on capital employed over the cycle, gearing below 50%, as well as dividend payout of 30-50% of earnings per share."