Industrial Trucks & Services segment

Business performance and order intake

The Industrial Trucks & Services segment registered a year-on-year increase in orders for new trucks across all sales regions of 7.6 per cent to 216.7 thousand units. The Linde brand (including Fenwick) achieved strong growth and accounted for 62.1 per cent of new truck business. STILL generated 31.8 per cent of new orders; the remaining 6.1 per cent was attributable to the Baoli and OM Voltas brands.

In line with the objectives of the KION 2027 strategy, there was a particularly sharp increase in unit sales of electric-powered trucks, which accounted for over 80 per cent of orders.

The total value of order intake rose by 6.0 per cent to €6,210.6 million (2017: €5,859.5 million), despite negative currency effects of €98.5 million. In addition to new truck orders, the expanding service business also contributed to this increase.

Revenue

Total segment revenue went up by 6.3 per cent to €5,922.0 million (2017: €5,572.2 million). Although deliveries were delayed during the course of 2018 due to temporary bottlenecks at individual suppliers, which adversely affected revenue, the level of output improved markedly in the second half of the year. Excluding negative currency effects of €97.6 million, the increase in revenue was 8.0 per cent for 2018 as a whole. The growth of 6.4 per cent in the new truck business is due to scheduled price adjustments and, above all, increasing unit sales of electric forklift trucks and warehouse trucks. Unit sales of diesel trucks were lower than in 2017. Revenue from the service business was up by 6.1 per cent year on year, which was almost the same as the rate of revenue growth in the new truck business. Aftersales business accounted for the largest share, contributing 52.1 per cent of service revenue. The rental and used truck business was also very encouraging, with revenue going up by 5.7 per cent. The proportion of the segment’s external revenue accounted for by the service business was 49.1 per cent (2017: 49.2 per cent).

Earnings

The segment’s adjusted EBIT increased at a slightly slower rate than revenue to reach €655.4 million (2017: €642.7 million). The related contraction of the adjusted EBIT margin to 11.1 per cent (2017: 11.5 per cent) essentially reflects the impact of the bottlenecks at suppliers, the effects of which included temporary inefficiencies in production. The adjusted EBIT margin continued to be squeezed by higher material prices and wage costs. After taking into account non-recurring items and purchase price allocation effects, EBIT amounted to €625.2 million (2017: €640.2 million).

Adjusted EBITDA improved to €1,340.2 million (2017: €1,288.7 million). This equated to an adjusted EBITDA margin of 22.6 per cent (2017: 23.1 per cent). > TABLE 015