In its first half 2018 results, Hans Joachim Theiss, Chairman of SMT Scharf AG, commented as follows on the growth of the business in the first half of the year: “With the successful implementation of strategic measures such as the acquisition of Canadian mining specialist RDH Mining Equipment and our continuous improvement programmes in the Group, we created the conditions in the first half of the year for sustained growth. Positive growth in sales, income and orders in the first six months of the year is clear evidence that our work is bearing fruit. On the basis of our strategy, we intend to further raise our profile in all important markets and profit from the consistently healthy state of the industry.”
Theiss adds: “The integration of RDH Mining Equipment is running smoothly in all areas. We succeeded in including it in the group of consolidated companies in time for the second quarter. We will start with technical integration in the second half of the year. Thanks to RDH, we now have rubber-wheeled diesel and electric vehicles for mining and tunnelling in our product portfolio, and we are able to customise the vehicles to meet customers’ needs. That will provide a further boost to our business.”
The company said that against the continuing background of stable to slightly rising commodity prices, mine operators are shedding their reticence and investing in new systems and modernising their existing infrastructure. This development is reflected in buoyant business with new systems which posted a half-year figure of EUR 12.4 million, a significant increase over the same period in the previous year (H1 2017: EUR 8.7 million). In Services and Spare Parts, SMT Scharf achieved sales revenues of EUR 15.7 million (H1 2017: EUR 14.5 million). The Rail Systems product segment accounted for EUR 22.8 million of total revenue in the reporting period (H1 2017: EUR 21.6 million) while rubber-wheeled vehicles, a new line of business launched with the acquisition of RDH, achieved sales revenue of EUR 3.0 million. Sales of chair lifts stood at EUR 2.3 million (H1 2017: EUR 1.6 million).
China proved to be the market with the strongest growth in the reporting period, and here SMT Scharf was able to report significantly higher revenue of EUR 8.2 million following EUR 3.3 million in the previous year. “The consolidation phase among mine operators there is now largely completed. At the same time, the local prices for hard coal have reached a level which makes it lucrative for mining companies to expand production.” Sales in the second largest foreign market of Russia declined as expected to EUR 7.7 million (H1 2017: EUR 9.6 million), due to the completion of several major projects.