The company continues that as a result of the healthy incoming order situation, its order backlog improved significantly to €810m at the end of the first quarter. This is the highest level for six quarters.

However sales for the period were humble with management reporting a three per cent rise on the previous year’s figure of €514m.

Commenting on the results, Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberg says, “The market recovery continued in the first quarter, thus helping to maintain the upward trend in incoming orders and sales.

“Together with the cost-cutting measures initiated, this has substantially reduced our operating loss.”

The operating result excluding special items improved considerably from the previous year’s figure of –€63m to –€35m. Key factors in this improvement were the slightly higher sales, the savings achieved by the cost-cutting programme, and the greater efficiency resulting from the reorganisation, the company reports.

A bright spot for Heidelberg was the increase in order from the Asia Pacific region. Incoming orders here totalled €262m, the highest level for five years and 42 percent up on the previous year’s figure of €185m.

The company outlines that the continued positive development in China played a key role in this, but significant increases were also recorded on many smaller markets such as India.

Schreier says, “The Chinese economy is still booming, with double-digit growth rates in some areas. China and Brazil are very attractive growth markets for us and we intend to further increase our share of sales there in the coming years.”

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