Half-year Financial Report 2022: KSB’s business performs well in the first half of the year

FRANKENTHAL: KSB, the Frankenthal-based pump and valve manufacturer, significantly increased order intake in the first half of 2022 – despite a difficult economic environment.

Order intake for the first six months was € 1,487.2 million, up by € 238.2 million on the comparative prior-year period. This equates to an increase of 19.1 %. All the Segments and Regions contributed to this growth. The Pumps Segment achieved order intake of € 843.2 million (+ 23.7 %). Orders received by the Valves Segment amounted to € 195.9 million (+ 11.4 %) and the KSB SupremeServ Segment, which covers the business with spare parts and services, recorded an order intake of € 448.1 million (+ 14.5 %).

Adverse conditions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions, especially in China, led to disruptions in supply chains and to production stoppages. KSB’s plant in Shanghai, for example, had to endure an eight-week partial closure. The Russia–Ukraine war and the cyber attack on the KSB IT infrastructure also had a negative impact on business development. 

At € 1,145.7 million, sales revenue was up 3.0 % (+ € 33.7 million) on the comparative prior-year period. While sales revenue in the Pumps Segment of € 608 million (+ 0.2 %) was almost unchanged from the previous year’s level, it increased by 15.2 % to € 160.1 million in the Valves Segment and to € 377.6 million (+ 3.0 %) in the KSB SupremeServ Segment.  

The Region Americas, in particular, recorded clear double-digit growth rates in sales revenue. Growth was also strong in the Region Asia / Pacific, while the Region Middle East / Africa / Russia expanded moderately. Europe was the only Region to fall short of the comparative previous year’s figures.

With an EBIT of € 53.5 million, earnings were at prior-year levels (€ 53.6 million). The evaluation must take into account the challenges mentioned above, as well as severe damage caused by hail at the valves production facility in La Roche-Chalais in France and one-off costs due to the cyber attack. 

“In light of the extremely adverse conditions through which we have steered the company, we are satisfied with the first half of the year 2022,” says CEO Dr. Stephan Timmermann. “We successfully repelled the cyber attack and are fully operational again. We are confident that we can make up for the shortfall in sales revenue and achieve our targets for the year. The fragile global economy, together with the threat of recession and inflation, the consequences of the war in Ukraine, price increases for energy and important raw materials, as well as the bottlenecks in supply chains, remain challenging and undoubtedly harbour uncertainties.”

KSB is a leading international manufacturer of pumps and valves. The Frankenthal-based Group has a presence on five continents with its own sales and marketing organisations, manufacturing facilities and service operations. With a workforce of around 15,400, the KSB Group generated sales revenue of around € 2.3 billion in 2021.

Press release: KSB’s business performs well in the first half of the year