With its products and services in the Industrial Cranes, Port Technology and Services segments, the Demag Cranes Group operates on the global market for cargo handling equipment and material logistics. This market includes all products which perform, control and monitor cargo handling and logistics processes, including the corresponding software solutions and services.

The market for industrial cranes shrank slightly in the 2009/2010 financial year compared with the previous year. The positive performance in the fourth quarter was not enough to fully compensate for the weaker first nine months. Changes in industry conditions were largely in line with the market development in the mechanical engineering industry, with a delay. According to analyses by the industry association VDMA, there was growth in order intake in the mechanical engineering sector from the third quarter. This applied equally to orders inside and outside of Germany and, owing to the late cyclical nature of the Industrial Cranes segment, was reflected with a delay in the fourth quarter figures. In addition, according to the VDMA, capacity utilisation in mechanical engineering in Germany increased from 69.2 percent in July 2009 to 84.5 percent in October 2010. There are several reasons for this increase: production capacities were cut in many companies and capacity utilisation improved thanks to rapidly growing demand. Year-on-year increases were recorded not just in Germany, but throughout Europe and in the USA.

The increase in the market share of emerging markets was in the high single-digit range, despite a slowdown. Above all, the BIC countries (Brazil, India, China) contributed to this development. The emerging markets are particularly characterised by intense local as well as international competition.

Global market consolidation also continued to advance in the industrial cranes market in the financial year. In March 2010, for example, the Finnish Konecranes group purchased a minority interest in the Japanese hoists and cranes producer Kito Corporation.

In the market for the Port Technology segment, cargo volumes and container transport rates were very low in the financial year, although these key parameters improved markedly in the final quarter. Customers of the Port Technology segment reacted to these developments by postponing or reducing investment activities. In addition to expansion investments, replacement investments also failed to materialise for the time being, since lower capacity utilisation of terminals meant there was hardly any need for them. Although there is still customer demand for cost-cutting and environmentally friendly Demag Cranes solutions, this demand is also subject to the trend described above as well as to intense price competition.

World Container Traffic