(AWP) The machine tool manufacturer Tornos (TOHN 6.40 +5.44%) made it back into profitability in the first half of 2021. The company was able to improve significantly in all markets and product groups. The production plants were working to full capacity.
Tornos increased sales by 50.2% to CHF 84.4 million. Accordingly, operating profit (EBIT) was again in positive territory after the corona-related slump last year. It rose to CHF 11.1 million after a negative CHF 13.1 million in the first half of 2020, as Tornos announced on Tuesday. The bottom line was a net profit of CHF 11.6 million. This exceeded the estimates of the analysts at Research Partners.
Orders in the automotive industry back on top
Orders also increased significantly: Tornos recorded incoming orders of CHF 104.6 million in the first half of 2021 after CHF 42.8 million in the previous year. The company also won numerous new customers.
This is particularly true for the automotive industry. This sales market had completely collapsed in 2019. Tornos therefore wanted to position itself more strongly in other sales markets. In the first half of 2021, however, this market segment was again at the top for Tornos, followed by medical and dental technology and the electrical industry, as it is called.
Austerity measures are having an impact
In the past financial year, the Tornos Group was hit with full force by the corona crisis and posted a loss of almost CHF 30 million. The demand for Swiss type automatic lathes and multi-spindle machines, such as those produced by Tornos, had collapsed practically overnight.
After that, however, the company had introduced rigorous austerity measures, the fruits of which the company can now reap, according to the announcement. Profitability was significantly increased compared to the previous Corona year. At that time, with sales of over CHF 117 million, the operating result was just under CHF 9 million.
Careful outlook
Although Tornos improved significantly in 2021, the company also had to fight difficulties in the first half of 2021: Despite high stocks, the Tornos companies were at times faced with major challenges in meeting delivery times, according to the communiqué.
The reason for this was that there were interruptions in the global supply chains for raw materials and supplier products. In addition, the corona-related regulations and precautionary measures made business more difficult in the first half of 2021, because in many countries machine installations and service calls were only possible with a great deal of additional effort.
For the year as a whole, Tornos is cautious. It is said that an outlook is still difficult. For the second semester, however, Tornos is again assuming significantly better results than in the previous year.
However, the company puts it into perspective: part of the market development in the first half of 2021 was recorded due to catch-up effects. However, it is not yet possible to estimate how sustainable the upturn will be. In addition, the availability of raw materials and supplier parts and their price development remain uncertain.
You can find the complete history of Tornos here. »
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