Summary of business performance

Sales markets

The global market for forklift trucks and warehouse trucks saw strong growth compared with the prior-year period, which had been adversely affected by the pandemic. The number of new truck orders rose by 54.1 percent to 1,768 thousand units.

All sales regions contributed to this growth. In the APAC region (Asia-Pacific), the number of new trucks ordered went up by 39.9 percent compared with the prior-year period. This was primarily attributable to orders for entry-level warehouse trucks. The Chinese market (up by 39.4 percent) accounted for the largest portion of this increase in absolute terms, despite a slight decline in orders in the third quarter. In the EMEA region (western Europe, eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa), new orders were up by 61.6 percent year on year. The Americas region (North, Central, and South America) registered growth of 81.1 percent, which was mainly due to higher order volumes in the North American market.

New orders of IC trucks and electric trucks in the reporting period were up by 33.8 percent and 63.2 percent respectively year on year, primarily driven by catch-up effects in EMEA and the Americas. At 67.2 percent, growth in the business with warehouse trucks was even stronger.

In the KION Group’s view, the coronavirus pandemic continued to boost the growth of the market for supply chain solutions in the reporting period. There was no letup in customers’ investment in warehouse automation and robotics solutions. The KION Group believes that this growth was driven primarily by ongoing investment by companies in the e-commerce, general merchandise and food sectors.

Business performance in the Group

In the first nine months of 2021, the KION Group forged ahead with investment in new production facilities in the growth regions of the material handling market. The construction of an additional factory in China for manufacturing Linde and Baoli counterbalance trucks, which got under way in the city of Jinan (Shandong province) in 2020, continued on schedule in the third quarter. With planned capital expenditure of around €100 million, the new plant expands existing production capacity in China and will focus on the value segment in combination with the increasing electrification of industrial trucks in the Chinese market. The new plant, which is designed for a planned capacity of up to 40,000 industrial trucks, is expected to come on stream in the first quarter of 2022.

The new industrial truck plant in Kołbaskowo, near Szczecin in Poland, involved capital expenditure of around €80 million and has begun to produce the first counterbalance trucks after officially opening at the start of July 2021. It is designed for a capacity of up to 12,000 industrial trucks.

In February 2021, the KION Group further strengthened Linde Material Handling’s dealer network by acquiring the remaining shares in the Hamburg-based wholesaler and service provider Hans Joachim Jetschke Industriefahrzeuge (GmbH & Co.) KG and JETSCHKE GmbH. As a result of the acquisitions, these companies are now wholly owned subsidiaries. The purchase consideration for 79 percent of the shares totaled €13.9 million.

At the end of September 2021, the KION Group made a strategic investment by acquiring a stake of around 20 percent in ifesca GmbH, a start-up specializing in the energy industry. ifesca’s AI-based energy management platform offers an innovative range of solutions for predictive and resource-efficient energy management that are to be gradually integrated into the KION Group’s product portfolio as part of an end-to-end approach to energy management.

KION GROUP AG entered into an agreement for a new syndicated revolving credit facility (RCF) with a total volume of €1,000.0 million on October 4, 2021. The new credit facility, which should also help to improve the interest-rate margin, can be used straight away. It has a term of five years that can be extended by up to two years with the consent of the syndicate of banks. The previous credit facility, whose term was due to end in February 2023 and which had a volume of €1,150.0 million, was terminated at the same time.