Hamburg—The Jungheinrich Group continued its profitable course for growth in the second quarter of 2008. Incoming orders and net sales recorded a substantial year-on-year rise. The latter benefited from a boost in production output compared with 2007. The company expects business volume to continue expanding in the second half of the year, even in the event of a weakening market trend.

In the second quarter of 2008, global demand for material handling equipment expanded moderately, advancing by some 5 per cent, although the first ramifications of the cooling world economy triggered a tangible deceleration of the growth of the material handling equipment market. Contributing 15 per cent, demand in Asia continued to expand above average. China recorded an 18 per cent rate of increase. All in all, growth in Europe totalled 2 per cent. Eastern Europe was the growth driver in this region, achieving a rise of over 18 per cent. In contrast, Western Europe experienced a moderate downward trend, especially owing to the major collapse of the Spanish market in terms of volume. The North American market continued to shrink, reporting a drop of 6 per cent. However, the downward trend slowed significantly in the second quarter.

Orders on hand from Jungheinrich’s new truck business continued to rise, totalling 387 million euros as of June 30—up 14 per cent on the 340 million euros achieved in the corresponding period last year. Since the beginning of the year, the value of orders on hand has advanced by 16 per cent. The range of orders remained in excess of four months.

Net sales in the second quarter of 2008 climbed by nearly 10 per cent to 547 million euros (prior year: 499 million euros). In the first half of the year, the Group thus lifted net sales by some 9 per cent to 1,038 million euros (prior year: 955 million euros). The short-term hire and used equipment business contributed the largest gain, growing by 13 per cent, followed by the new truck business, which recorded an increase of almost 10 per cent. After-sales services benefited from the steady rise in market penetration, gaining more than five per cent. At 74 per cent, the foreign ratio was on par with the year-earlier level.

Thanks to the market rise in production at the company’s plants, the expansion of the short-term hire and used equipment business, and higher net sales generated by after-sales services, the company was able to offset the negative effects of persistently high raw material prices and the competition-induced pressure on prices in new truck business. Nevertheless, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were slightly down in the second quarter of 2008, amounting to 33.9 million euros (prior year: 36.0 million euros), due to the additional costs incurred in connection with the company’s appearance at the CeMAT sector trade show and the substantial rise in research and development costs affecting earnings compared with the same period last year. The corresponding return on sales was 6.2 per cent (prior year: 7.2 per cent). By the end of the first six months, however, operating income had risen to 63.5 million euros (prior year: 62.2 million euros), with the comparable return on sales amounting to 6.1 per cent at the mid-year mark (prior year: 6.5 per cent).

In the second quarter, net income rose by a disproportionately high 7 per cent to