2020 was a year like no other, and fundamentally transformative for Konecranes and the world around us. The COVID-19 pandemic exacted human and economic costs unseen for generations, forcing companies globally to rapidly adjust to the volatile conditions.
Against this challenging backdrop, we took rapid action to protect the health and safety of our people, and moved quickly to ensure business continuity and performance in the short term and sharpen our strategy for the longer term. In addition, we made meaningful progress in delivering on our commitment to operate more sustainably and to help our customers do the same.
In October, we announced the most important development for Konecranes in our 26-year history as an independent company: our plan to merge with Cargotec to create a global leader in sustainable material flow.
Simply put it was an extraordinary 12 months, capped by strong earnings to end the year, giving us good momentum and positioning us well for the future.
Rob Smith
President and CEO of Konecranes
YEAR 2020 IN NUMBERS
2727.3
MEUR (-13.9%) Order intake3178.9
MEUR (-4.4%) Net sales8.2 %
Adjusted EBITA margin1715.5
MEUR (-6.0%) Order book2300
Number of active and pending patents46.1 %
GearingKONECRANES IN 2020
The acquisition of MHE-Demag was completed in early 2020
The combined operations of Konecranes and MHE-Demag started on January 2, 2020. With the acquisition, Konecranes increases its presence and market coverage in the strategically important and fast-growing Southeast Asia.
Investments made in technology came through in the year of the COVID-19 pandemic
Our TRUCONNECT crane utilization data and digital telemetry assisted us in real-time demand-supply balancing and in tailoring our service for our customers.
We showed strong leadership in work safety and sharpened our approach to climate risks and opportunities
We implemented fast and effective actions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the well-being of our employees and the business. We made important advances in mapping human rights related risks and focus areas. We signed the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) commitment and sharpened our approach on managing climate change risks and opportunities.
We focused extensive efforts on internal awareness creation in Diversity & Inclusion
Appreciation of diversity and building a culture of inclusion were reflected in many internal tools and practices. An all-employee training on unconscious biases was rolled out across the company.
A planned merger between Konecranes and Cargotec was announced on October 1, 2020
Completion of the merger is expected on January 1, 2022, given all conditions and merger control approvals for completion are fulfilled.
Important deals and deliveries were closed, new product features made available
We finalized Konecranes’ largest-ever delivery of 86 Automated Stacking Cranes for the Virginia Port Authority in June and secured important deals on the next-generation S-series overhead cranes, launched in 2019. We introduced a new customer application called CheckApp for Daily Inspections to support customers in their self-service, and released a fully electric forklift truck, the E-VER, adding latest eco-efficient technology to our conventional lift trucks.
BUSINESS AREAS
Performance and profitability improvement in the face of global economic uncertainty was the emerging story in 2020 for Business Area Service. A strong Service agreement base gave us resilience for dealing with the business impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous investments in the digital ecosystem came through in 2020 with improved productivity.
A model to balance supply and demand was quickly put in place to ensure Business Area Industrial Equipment delivered on customer orders in the fast-changing environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Good progress was made during the year with the turnaround of the process crane business and lean operations, procurement and project management initiatives. IE was able to consecutively improve its profitability throughout 2020.
Business Area Port Solutions delivered consistently on an operational level despite the challenging circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel and access restrictions had a negative impact on Port Solutions’ sales especially in the second and third quarters. Global container throughput recovered in the second half and ended 2020 above the year before, and Port Solutions finished 2020 by achieving new all-time high quarterly records for both order intake and sales.
SUSTAINABILITY
Konecranes develops products, services and solutions that reduce the environmental impact of our customers. On top of tangible sustainability benefits, we create value through enhancing circularity and through our deeply rooted safety culture.
In 2020 we:
- Maintained our level of operations and supported our customers in delivering critical services during the COVID-19 pandemic – all while protecting both our own employees and our customers’ staff.
- Made clear progress on our diversity and inclusion roadmap by training the organization about unconscious biases and introduced programs to accelerate the representation of women in leadership positions.
- Conducted a set of workshops for Business Areas and the procurement function to define climate-related risks and opportunities on a detailed level to sharpen our climate roadmap for years to come. In December, Konecranes also signed the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) letter of commitment and will define new climate targets for its operations.