Konecranes lowers its forecasts
8 November 2013Konecranes has lowered its full-year forecast following a 10 per cent drop in third quarter orders, the company announced earlier this month. The company said that ‘continued soft market and unfavourable currency development’ are to blame for the revised expectations.
According to the preliminary figures, Konecranes' third quarter 2013 order intake was approximately EUR 413M (USD 564.9M), down 10 per cent year-on-year. Approximately one-half or almost five percentage points of the order intake decline was explained by negative currency changes. Sales were approximately EUR 503M (USD 688M) and operating profit excluding restructuring costs approximately EUR 32M (USD 43.7M). The operating margin excluding restructuring costs was approximately 6.4 per cent.
The company stated that both the cost base and the operating margin developed as expected in the third quarter of 2013. Group's efficiency improvement programme to lower the annual cost base by EUR 30M (USD 41M) by the end of 2014 is proceeding as planned.
Elsewhere Konecranes has introduced a remote services product family named Truconnect, the company announced earlier this month. The system has been the subject of extensive field tests and is presently available on the company's wire rope CXT and open winch Smarton cranes.
Konecranes stated that Truconnect offers a number of benefits to customers by helping them optimise crane maintenance, increase operational safety and maximise usage leading to improved productivity.
Collection of crane usage data is via a remote condition monitoring unit that relays information relating to a variety of operating characteristics through to a dedicated online customer portal. The information gathered is then compiled at Konecranes' remote centre before providing the customer with a realistic view of their crane's perating conditions through continuous data collection.
"Truconnect has been piloted by a number of customers and the feedback so far is extremely encouraging," said Adam Batsford, Konecranes' Truconnect product manager. "The system is yet another Konecranes service innovation that is designed to help customers get the most out of their cranes and lifting equipment.
Its true benefit lies in the ability for customers to improve overall operational safety, as it gives them access to important crane operational information in real time, which in turn gives them confidence to plan actions and make informed decisions regarding maintenance investments and productivity."
