Orders received grew in all business areas - Cargotec Q3'18 Q&A

Kalmar Q3 orders received increased by 38% year-on-year, what was the reason for that?
In the third quarter, Kalmar’s orders received increased by 38 percent and totalled EUR 486 (351) million. There was good development in automation and projects, mobile equipment and services. In comparable foreign exchange rates orders received increased by 41 percent.

Cargotec’s January-September 2018 operating profit excluding restructuring costs is EUR 170 million which is 9% behind last year’s figure. According to your guidance, you will improve operating profit excluding restructuring costs for 2018. What means do you have to achieve this?
Our order backlog is record high, which is good starting point for Q4. Large share of order backlog is favourable in terms of margin and revenue recognition. Even though we are still suffering from supply chain bottlenecks, our delivery performance is improving.

When comparing monthly figures, overall performance has clearly improved towards the end of the quarter as September showed solid improvement y-o-y.

Why did Hiab EBIT excluding restructuring costs decline by 28% y-o-y in Q3?
This was related to the weakening of US dollar compared to the euro (EUR 4 million), product mix and supply chain challenges as well as investments in sales and service capabilities and digitalisation.

What kind of impact trade war can have on Cargotec? How about the embargos?
Currently trade flows continue to be on a good level. Uncertainty might delay customers’ investment decisions. There are no winners in trade war, we believe. It is difficult to estimate the situation, as it keeps changing all the time. We have some manufacturing capabilities in USA as well, and therefore, we have a possibility to consider higher production volumes and product range there. We have possibilities to adjust supply chain, if needed.

If all proposed tariffs would be implemented, they would still only cover around 1.7% of global seaborne trade (4.8% of container seaborne trade). In addition, the tariffs do not include large cranes, such as ASCs and RTGs.

How much was the impact of weak US dollar on Hiab’s operating profit in Q3 and in January-September 2018?
It was some EUR 4 million in Q3 and EUR 16 million in January-September 2018.

Why did software sales increase 33% in Q3?
Large part of software business is still licence based, and it makes the business lumpy.

How is the supply chain developing?
We still have bottlenecks, we have a few key suppliers whose performance has been very poor. In Hiab, we are also suffering from bottlenecks in installation capacity.

Why was the cash flow on a low level in Q3?
Cash flow decreased, as more capital was tied up in inventories due to improved demand in certain product categories in Kalmar and Hiab as well as supply chain issues, and advances received were lower.

Why did MacGregor EBIT decline even though net sales are increasing?
Operating profit excluding restructuring costs decreased compared to the comparison period due to M&A and integration related costs of around EUR 1.5 million as well as low capacity utilisation in certain product areas.

Hanna-Maria Heikkinen, Vice President, Investor Relations, presents Cargotec's Q3 2018 results.