Orders received by Raute in the first quarter were 20 % higher than a year earlier at €30m. Contrasting development was registered in new plant and service/modernisation business. Orders for new plants remained roughly a fifth lower than last year’s figure at €11m. The “Technology Services” division’s receipts of orders, on the other hand, rose by 73 % to €19m. At the end of the quarter, the backlog of orders was 7 % higher than a year earlier at €98m; the €94m reached at the end of December was exceeded by 4 %.
As regards the individual sales regions, development was positive in North America business in particular with receipts of orders more than trebling. According to information from CEO Tapani Kiiski, this made North America Raute’s most important sales market again after some considerable time, accounting for 37 % of the total receipts of orders. Europe also increased slightly in significance at 32 %. As such, both regions overtook Russia (17 %), which had still accounted for half of all the orders taken in the same quarter of last year. South America and the Asia-Pacific region contributed 5 % and 9 %, respectively, to total receipts of orders in the first quarter.
Development in sales revenue was held back by corona-related restrictions on assembly work and servicing orders in the first quarter, too. At €24.8m, sales revenue for the quarter were 4 % higher than a year earlier. Roughly two thirds of this are attributable to business with new installations, and a third to the Technology Services segment.