Konecranes plans to stop business in Russia
Konecranes does not take any new business from Russia. The downscaling of the Russian business will be gradual and will be done in accordance with local laws and regulations. In 2021, Konecranes’ sales to Russia totaled EUR 55 million, the company said.
Konecranes operates a crane and component factory in Zaporizhzhia, in the south-eastern part of Ukraine, according to the company's release. The factory is one of the Industrial Equipment supply factories for crane components and a crane manufacturing unit for Eastern Europe deliveries. It also offers extra capacity for Konecranes’ western crane deliveries specialized in large steel structures. In addition, Konecranes has employees working in crane service, port service, spare parts and industrial crane sales operations mainly in Odessa, Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia.
The production at the Ukrainian factory was stopped after the operation started. The planned production has been redirected to other Konecranes manufacturing sites. As the level of uncertainty regarding Konecranes’ operations in Ukraine remains high, Konecranes has impaired all Ukraine related assets, including inventories and receivables, in the first quarter. The impact of the impairments on operating profit is approximately EUR 8 million negative.
As a result of this decision, in the first quarter, Konecranes has written off EUR 79 million of orders from Russia and cancelled EUR 32 million of sales to Russia, as these projects have been discontinued. The orders had been booked and the project revenues recognized prior to 2022. The impact of the cancelled sales on Q1 operating profit is approximately EUR 39 million negative.
In total, in the first quarter, the negative impact of the cancelled sales to Russia and the impairments of assets in Ukraine is EUR 44 million on EBITA and EUR 47 million on operating profit. The full amount will be included in adjustments.
As the result impact of the sales cancellations and impairments is included in the adjustments, they do not impact Konecranes’ guidance for 2022 stated on February 3, 2022, as follows: Konecranes expects net sales to increase in full-year 2022 compared to 2021. Konecranes expects the full-year 2022 adjusted EBITA margin to improve from 2021.
Konecranes will report its January-March 2022 Interim Report on April 27, 2022. Due to the ongoing silent period, Konecranes will not give any further comments on the January-March 2022 results before the Interim Report has been published.
Konecranes provides lifting solutions and serves manufacturing and process industries, shipyards, ports and terminals. In 2021, Group sales totaled EUR 3.2 billion. The Group has around 16,600 employees in 50 countries. Konecranes shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki.