Level of orders

At €2,438.9 million, the value of the KION Group’s order intake in the first quarter of 2024 was a little higher than in the prior-year period (Q1 2023: €2,401.2 million).

In the Industrial Trucks & Services segment, order intake fell by 7.8 percent year on year in the first three months of 2024 to €1,804.0 million (Q1 2023: €1,956.5 million). Overall order numbers for new trucks were close to the prior-year level despite the continued economic slowdown in the EMEA region. In the Americas region, order numbers fell sharply, whereas the APAC region saw strong growth in orders. The service business was up slightly compared with the prior-year period.

Order intake in the Supply Chain Solutions segment came to €641.6 million, a significant increase of 41.2 percent compared with the very weak prior-year figure (€454.4 million). However, demand in the long-term project business (business solutions) remained muted in the reporting period because of customers delaying the awarding of projects. The volume of orders in the service business (customer services) remained very encouraging, with further year-on-year growth on the back of the existing installed base with customers.

The KION Group’s order book had contracted to €5,587.6 million at the end of the quarter (Q4 2023: €6,045.2 million). In the Industrial Trucks & Services (ITS) segment, the order backlog was reduced further thanks to good progress in working through orders from the previous year. By contrast, the contraction in the Supply Chain Solutions segment’s order book decreased in part due to the cancellation of prior-year orders worth €92.1 million.

The figure for the Group’s order book as at the end of 2023 was retrospectively reduced by €316.9 million due to a definition-related adjustment for the preceding years in the service business of the Supply Chain Solutions segment.