Haulotte is enjoying strong sales

Haulotte Group has released its first quarter results, showing 17% growth in consolidated sales of EUR115.0 million (USD130 million), up from EUR98.2 million (USD111 million) for the same period last year.

Equipment sales were up 19%, with Europe rising 30% and North America up 35%, maintaining the trend observed in 2015. The Asia Pacific area is down 19% due to the slowdown in the Middle East. Latin America fell 6%, as it was impacted by the situation in Brazil, albeit to a lower extent.

Services and Rental activities are also growing by 5% and 7%, respectively, compared to the first quarter of 2015.

The group's financial report says this first quarter of activity confirms its expectation to deliver sales growth of close to 5% in 2016.

Haulotte is the first major to report on its Q1 performance, but its positive results come on the back of similar performance from KION, which expects a slower rate of global market growth this year, including rising orders in Europe and North America along with further contraction in Russia and Brazil. The KION Group believes that China will stabilise over the course of the year, although conditions will remain challenging.

Earlier in the reporting cycle, Jungheinrich Group has boasted a "very successful year-end to fiscal 2015", posting strong growth and new record highs for incoming orders, production, net sales and all earnings figures.

Last year was also successful for Cargotec, with president and CEO Mika Vehviläinen 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."