Kalmar has strengthened its order book.

Orders at cargo and load handling solutions provider Cargotec fell 4% in the January quarter, while sales dropped 7% to EUR828 million (USD952 million), down from EUR889 million (USD1.02 billion) last year.

Nonetheless, operating profit excluding restructuring costs increased 12% (EUR58.5 million or USD67.3 million), representing 7.1% of sales - a big jump from 5.9% the same time last year.

Cargotec's CEO Mika Vehviläinen says the start of the year was strong for the Kalmar and Hiab operations, while the market situation in MacGregor remained challenging, as in the previous year.

"Despite the lack of orders for large automation projects, orders for Kalmar reached the comparison period's level and Hiab's order intake grew 8% from (the same period last year)."

Vehviläinen notes that Kalmar's strengthened order book supports the company's growth target for the full year.

He also points to "Hiab's very strong quarter" and the impact of restructuring measures undertaken in 2015 for the MacGregor business.

"Execution of our strategy, published at the end of 2015, is proceeding according to plan in all three focus areas: services, digitalisation and leadership development," he concludes.

Cargotec's business areas are Kalmar, Hiab and MacGregor.