Austria's Andritz sees favourable business development in Q1FY22

In particular, the Pulp & Paper and Hydro business areas were able to increase order intake significantly compared to the reference period of the previous year, the company said in a press release.

“We are very pleased with business development in the first quarter of 2022. Despite the very difficult overall economic conditions, we succeeded in increasing order intake in all business areas – in some cases substantially – and created a good basis for revenue and earnings development in the coming quarters,” Joachim Schonbeck, president & CEO of Andritz, said.

The order backlog as of March 31, 2022, reached a record level at €9,435.1 million and has thus risen significantly once again compared to the end of 2021 (December 31, 2021: €8,165.8 million).

In the second quarter, revenue was recorded at €1,526.9 million, 2.3 per cent higher than in the previous year’s reference period (Q1 2021: €1,493.2 million). This rise is largely attributable to the metals and separation business areas.

The operating result (EBITA) increased more than revenue, reaching €122.3 million (+10.3 per cent compared to Q1 2021: €110.9 million). As a result, the group’s profitability (EBITA margin) increased significantly to 8.0 per cent (Q1 2021: 7.4 cent).

For the full-year 2022, Andritz confirms the expectations voiced in March 2022 on the occasion of the release of the 2021 financial figures and, from today’s perspective, expects an increase in revenue as well as in EBITA and net income compared to the previous year.

The financial guidance provided by Andritz for 2022 takes account of the financial impact discernible from today’s perspective by the war in Ukraine as a regional incident. Possible adverse economic effects by the Chinese COVID policy on the global economy cannot be estimated at present and thus are not included in the Andritz financial guidance. A negative impact cannot be excluded from today’s perspective.

However, if the global economy suffers severe setbacks in the coming months because of the war between Russia and Ukraine or the pandemic intensifies again, this could lead to negative effects on the processing of orders and on order intake and hence have a negative impact on Andritz’s financial development. This may create a need for capacity adjustment measures that could have a negative impact on the Andritz Group’s earnings. Similarly, further increases in the price of raw materials or bottlenecks in global supply chains could have a negative effect on the group’s earnings development.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)