Metso may not have registered any large mining equipment orders in the June quarter, but President and CEO, Pekka Vauramo, remained upbeat about the company’s future mineral processing sales prospects.
The company’s June quarter results saw healthy market activity in both the Minerals and Flow Control division, Metso said, with orders received increasing 2% – to €869 million ($966 million) – sales up 16% – to €903 million – and operating profit rising to €114 million – from €86 million previously.
Minerals posted a flat year-on-year result, whereas Flow Control orders were up 9%, according to Metso, noting that Minerals orders were positively impacted by strong services and aggregates equipment orders, while Flow Control benefited from oil & gas projects as well as services.
Metso said on the Minerals division’s results: “Equipment orders declined 14%, whereas services orders increased 9%. The lower volume of equipment orders was a result of the lack of large mining equipment orders due to timing.”
When it came to Minerals sales, however, the €735 million number was a 17% improvement on the same period in 2018, with equipment sales growing faster than services in both Minerals and Flow Control segments.
During the quarter, the company completed the acquisition of HighService Service, expanding Metso’s services offering in the mining market of Chile and neighbouring countries. And, after the quarter ended, it announced a proposed acquisition of Outotec to become Metso Outotec. This deal, if completed, would see the combined company become the second biggest process, technology, equipment and services firm serving the minerals, metals and aggregates industries based on 2018 sales. The transaction would also see the company’s Flow Control business spunoff into a separate entity called Neles Oy.
Vauramo concluded on the latest financial results: “We continued to perform well and made good progress during the second quarter. Activity in our end markets remained healthy and is shown in the good order intake for both Minerals and Flow Control.
“The pipeline for mining equipment orders continues to be good even though there were no large bookings during the quarter due to timing. Sales grew at a healthy double-digit rate in both segments. In addition to volume growth, we continue to show higher operational leverage with improving profitability in both segments. This proves that the internal work done across the businesses is generating the targeted results.”
