Gottwald sees continued weak demand

Demag Cranes, owner of the Gottwald Port Technology brand, has reported a "stabilising trend" but continued "weak demand" in its Q1 2009-10 financial year results. Mobile harbour crane (MHC) sales generated most of the revenue, while the company blamed "the postponement of contract awards for large port projects" for a lack of orders for AGVs and ASCs.

Order intake in the Port Technology segment decreased by 24.8% year-on-year from €40.5m to €30.4m. The order book at 31 December 2009 totalled €62.0m, compared to €97.6m a year earlier. Revenue was €37.9m, down from €64.3m in Q1 of 2008-9. Operating Ebit fell from €1.6m in Q1 2008-9 to a negative €2.6m in the period under review. Meanwhile, Irish Continental Group (ICG) has taken delivery of a new Gottwald MHC for its operation in Belfast. The G HMK 6407 unit, a variant of Gottwald's Model 6, was due to go into service at ICG's Belfast Container Terminal (BCT) as CS went to press.

Alec Colvin, BCT general manager, said the machine's longer outreach would allow larger vessles to be handled, while the ability to connect to mains electrical power would help reduce noise and CO2 emissions.