Alstoms Q1 2013/14 orders impacted by a lack of big projects
Press Contacts
Visit our media section and follow the link "Press contacts"
From 1 April to 30 June 2013, Alstom booked 4.1 billion orders, down 32% compared to the first quarter of last year. In a challenging environment, a good flow of small to medium-sized orders was booked over the quarter but the commercial performance was penalized by a less active market regarding big contracts.
Sales were organically down by 2% to 4.6 billion, due to the execution profile of the backlog over the current year. Foreign exchange had a 2% negative impact on sales.
Over the first three months of the fiscal year, Thermal Power received orders of 1.5 billion, including a sustained flow of service contracts. At 1.1 billion, Transport order intake was made of numerous small to medium-sized contracts after a very high first quarter last year. Grid booked a robust volume of orders at 0.9 billion, whilst Renewable Power, at 0.5 billion, more than doubled its level of Q1 2012/13. Emerging markets represented 42% of the total orders over this period as projects booked in Thermal Service and Transport were for the most part in mature markets.
The sales decrease in the first quarter 2013/14 was linked to Thermal Powers and Transports organic decreases of respectively 4% and 6%. In both cases, the evolution of these quarterly sales reflects the execution profile of the backlog and, subsequently, sales are expected to ramp up in the coming quarters. Grid's turnover was up 5% on a like-for-like basis and Renewable Power up 8%.
The total backlog stood at 51 billion on 30 June 2013; it represented 31 months of sales.
The first quarter was marked by a good flow of small to medium-sized contracts which allowed us to generate more than 4 billion of orders despite the lack of big projects. In spite of a difficult commercial environment, tendering remains active, mainly driven by prospects in emerging markets but the timing of the booking of some large tickets remains, as usual, uncertain. Sales had a softer start this quarter compared to last year, with a negative foreign exchange impact. Despite this slow start, we expect sales to increase throughout the year and therefore we confirm our objective of a low single-digit organic sales growth for 2013/14, said Patrick Kron, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Alstom.
For more information, click on downloadable pdf version of the release below.