Ponsse was able to increase their net sales and reach a profitability rate of more than 10 per cent.
Ponsse’s year 2019 started with demand and orders being very high, while the forest machine market calmed down significantly towards the end of the year. They manufactured a record-breaking number of forest machines in their new factory. Within one year, they delivered the 14,000th and 15,000th Ponsse machines made in Vieremä to their customers.
Their order book was divided into two halves in 2019. During the first half, they broke their all-time record for orders, while economic uncertainties started to materialise in demand for forest machines during the latter half. At the same time, damage caused by bark beetles in Central Europe affected global timber markets and reduced customer investment activities in many market areas. Ponsse were unable to reach their record-high order figures for the comparison period and delivery times from the factory shortened as the order intake evened out. At the end of the year, the order book was positive, at EUR 256.8 (294.9) million.
The total forest machine market grew, especially in Sweden and Finland. Sweden regained its former position as the world’s largest cut-to-length forest machine market, leaving Russia behind. The Russian market remained at a high level, while growing fairly modestly. According to our estimates, the total cut-to-length forest machine market was larger than ever before, consisting of roughly 4,500 forest machines.
All Ponsse’s business areas, apart from trade-in machine sales, grew steadily during the period under review. Sales of new machines developed positively, driven by the factory’s increasing production volumes, and their service businesses grew moderately. The trade-in machine market was clearly more challenging than during the comparison period, and sales fell slightly short of the comparison period’s level. Ponsse were unable to reach their targeted growth in trade-in machine sales, while the turnover of their trade-in machine stocks remained at a high level. The Group's euro-denominated operating profit is expected to be on a par with 2019 in 2020. Source