Q3 'crucial' to KBA

German press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer (KBA) has described the third quarter of 2013 as ‘crucial’ to its full-year performance.

KBA reported a pre-tax profit of €10 million in the three months to the end of June, thanks to higher sales, a profitable product mix and cost savings.

This followed a pre-tax loss of €18.8 million in the first three months of the year, and equates to a pre-tax loss of €8.8 million for the first half of the year compared pre-tax profit of €6.7 million in the first half of 2012.

KBA said its strengthening position in the package printing market and successful tradeshows in China and Turkey during the second quarter helped bring new sheet-fed orders to €161 million.

However, KBA said it has felt the reluctance of newspaper and commercial printers to invest in web presses, driven by media shifts and intensified by a weak economy in some markets. After the extraordinary high in 2011, the order volume for special presses has also fallen back to the average level.

KBA said it expects earnings to continue to improve in the second half of the year and to achieve positive pre-tax earnings similar to 2012. However, it warned that third quarter performance would play a big part in this target.

KBA chief executive officer Claus Bolza-Schünemann said: ‘The volume of orders obtained in the next three months is crucial to just how close group sales in 2013 will come to last year’s figure of nearly €1.3 billion.’

With above-average revenue of €311.5 million generated in the second quarter, the gap to last year has become considerably smaller. However, after six months, group sales of €502.2 million were 15 percent lower than 12 months ago. Sales of €255.4 million generated by the web and special press division fell more than 26 percent short of last year’s figure due to deliveries postponed to the second half of the year. In contrast, sheet-fed sales were up 1.6 percent to €246.8 million.

Bolza-Schünemann added: ‘Taking into account the current economic climate, we cannot rule out a single-digit percentage decline in sales compared to 2012.’

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