Domestic gains in Kobelco’s half-year results

Japanese company Kobelco Cranes has reported an increase of 5% in domestic demand for crawler cranes within its half-year financial results (April 1 to September 1, 2015).

Projecting to the fiscal year-end (April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016), the company’s net sales are forecast to be approximately JPY 76,000 million (US$ 619 million) and ordinary income is forecast to be approximately JPY 3,500 million (US$ 28.5 million)

The growth in Japan is centred on the Kanto area, said Kobelco, where a combination of the construction of facilities for the Tokyo Olympics and urban development, have driven the movement of 260 units.

Overall demand for crawler cranes is reported at 1,100 units – a fall of 10% from the same period last year.

Kobelco cites the economic problems in the Asia Pacific region (largely a result of the fall in oil prices) for the drop in demand.

The company also cites the stagnation of the Chinese economy, (currently responsible for 30% of all world crawler crane demand) and the fact that the Indian economy is yet to make a significant recovery.

In its results, the company states it has responded “flexibly through the collaboration of production and sales to achieve higher sales and unit sales under these changes in the market environment.”

Positive results for Kobelco, include demand from North America (accounting for approximately 20% of the world’s total demand), which is up 10%, according to the Kobelco results.

It states that, while shale-gas related demand has slowed, this has been more than compensated for by demand for new plant and infrastructure construction projects.

Demand is also up over 20% in Western Europe, centred in the UK, while in the Middle East, demand increased over 30%.