Industrial Trucks & Services segment

Business performance and order intake

The Industrial Trucks & Services segment expanded its new truck business in all sales regions. Across all the brand companies, the number of orders for forklift trucks and warehouse trucks rose by 13.0 per cent to 201.4 thousand. The Linde brand (including Fenwick) registered a slightly higher increase and accounted for 61.6 per cent of the new truck business. STILL (including OM STILL) generated 31.7 per cent of new orders; the remaining 6.7 per cent was attributable to the Baoli and OM Voltas brands. All product categories saw their orders go up significantly, with IC trucks more than making up for their decline in the previous year. Electric forklift trucks and warehouse trucks, which are particularly important elements in integrated supply chain solutions, together accounted for 82.1 per cent of the order volume.

All the brand companies saw particularly strong increases in the APAC and EMEA regions. Eastern Europe stood out within the EMEA region, with Poland, Russia and the Czech Republic being the main contributors. In western Europe, the biggest rises in order numbers were registered in France and Italy. The KION Group returned to a path of growth in South and Central America, having reported decreases in 2016. The largest percentage increase was in North America, although the region remained at a moderate level in absolute terms.

The total value of order intake rose by 8.8 per cent to €5,859.5 million (2016: €5,383.2 million) despite negative currency effects. This included an increase in order intake in the service business.

Revenue

Total segment revenue went up by 8.2 per cent to €5,630.9 million (2016: €5,202.6 million). Revenue from new truck business with external customers rose by 9.3 per cent or €265.8 million to €3,126.0 million, while the growth in the service business was also encouraging at 6.9 per cent. Aftersales and rental business generated 81.9 per cent of the total revenue from the service business of €2,500.9 million. The proportion of the segment’s external revenue accounted for by the service business came to 44.4 per cent overall and was thus virtually the same as the prior-year figure of 45.0 per cent.

Earnings

Despite the significantly higher prices for materials, particularly steel and lead, and negative exchange rate effects, especially in connection with pound sterling, the positive revenue trend pushed up adjusted EBIT by 9.1 per cent to €640.1 million (2016: €586.9 million). At 11.4 per cent, the adjusted EBIT margin was moderately above its 2016 level of 11.3 per cent. After taking into account non-recurring items and purchase price allocation effects, EBIT amounted to €637.6 million (2016: €553.0 million).

Adjusted EBITDA stood at €1,054.1 million (2016: €958.8 million). This equated to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.7 per cent (2016: 18.4 per cent). > TABLE 023