The globally renowned German diesel engine manufacturing firm saw new orders rise by over 20% year on year to €843.5 million, compared to €701.0 million in H1 2012.
Despite the number of engines sold by DEUTZ in H1 2013 falling by 8.5% to 85,907, compared to the corresponding period of 2012 (93,853 units), the company’s first-half revenue declined by only 2.8% year on year to €662.1 million, compared to €681 million over the same six months of 2012. DEUTZ says revenue continued to outperform unit sales thanks to the growing proportion of higher-value engines that meet the new emissions standards. Orders on hand stood at €352.9 million on 30 June 2013 – up 41.4% on the €249.6 million orders as of the same day in 2012.
The firm achieved significant improvements in all relevant key trading figures for the second quarter of 2013 compared with both the previous quarter and the second quarter of 2012. Q2 2013 revenue came to €372.2 million, which was around 28% higher than the €289.9 million revenue of Q1 2013. The period April 1 to June 30 2013 also saw a substantial increase in operating profit (EBIT), which rose by €22.9 million compared with an operating loss of €6.4 million in the first three months of this year.
This strong Q2 2013 operating performance, which DEUTZ says had begun to emerge in the previous quarter, is said by the company to be the result of its successful product offensive. This is said by DEUTZ to be reflected in the large number of new customer projects, new applications for existing customers and, not least, the impressive volume of new orders – especially for the new TCD 2.9 and TCD 3.6 engines.
The company's Chinese joint venture Deutz (Dalian) Engine Co. was able to buck market trends and achieve robust growth this year. Having incurred a loss last year, it reported a modest operating profit for the first half of 2013 thanks to its higher revenue and improved efficiency.
Given the impressive performance of the company's business in Q2 2013 and the large volume of orders on hand, Dr Helmut Leube, chairman of DEUTZ's board of management, reaffirmed the firm’s forecast for 2013 as a whole. “We expect to generate encouraging growth in our unit sales, revenue and earnings over the remaining course of the year. Revenue is projected to reach at least €1.4 billion and there is the possibility of even higher revenue in view of the generally strong performance. There are, however, still risks in Europe and China. Our EBIT margin is predicted to exceed 3%. We have laid the foundations for further revenue rises in subsequent years thanks to the growth projects that we have already initiated and the increasing proportion of total unit sales generated by higher-value engines that meet the new emissions standards.”
