Sales down at Metso

Metso said it remained confident in its business strategy despite posting declines in sales and earnings for the first quarter of 2014, and rejecting a proposed takeover bid from UK engineering company Weir Group.

The Finnish crushing and screening equipment provider received orders worth €875 million in the first quarter of 2014, down 15% from 2013’s figure of €1 billion.

Net sales for the firm totalled €817 million, a drop of 11% from €915 million in the first three months of 2013. Meanwhile, EBITA before non-recurring expenses totalled €88 million, or 10.7% of net sales.

President and CEO, Matti Kähkönen, said, "The first quarter was relatively stable in terms of market activity. We saw continuing good demand from the oil and gas industry, which contributed to a good level of order intake in our automation segment.

"Demand for construction equipment and services recovered from the level current at the end of 2013. Although investments in mining equipment and projects continue to be low, demand seems to be bottoming out, which is a positive development.

“In terms of profitability, the first quarter is usually the weakest quarter of the year for Metso. We can be satisfied that our services business gives us useful resilience here and that cost savings have continued to compensate for the decline in net sales."

Metso estimated that its net sales in 2014 would be lower than 2013’s €3.9 billion, and forecast that its EBITA margin before non-recurring items for 2014 would be at 12% of net sales.