Glaston has reported solid financial progress in its half-year financial report, which covers January to June 2022. The glass processing technology business supplies equipment, services and solutions.
Anders Dahlblom, Glaston’s president and CEO, said: “Despite increasing overall global economic uncertainty, most of Glaston’s markets continued to perform well in the second quarter. The quarterly order intake was €56.2m, somewhat above our quarterly average.
He added: “The huge price increases for float glass in particular – the highest example being 40% in the US – has impacted our customers’ short-term profitability. Supported by the clear improvement in the first half of the year and the second half starting with a high order backlog, we expect good progress in 2022 despite the challenges in the business conditions.”
Sharing wider insights, Anders said: “For the services business, a strong quarter with over 20% net sales growth was recorded as customers maintained operations or continued to ramp up their production. This was reflected in strong growth for daily services, with all market areas contributing to the outcome. Labour availability constraints were a growing concern.
“Even though the development of the Chinese market currently is surrounded by uncertainty, we will proceed with our strategic focus to grow our business in China with a plan to establish production for automotive glass pre-processing equipment in Tianjin. The first products produced in China for the Chinese market are expected to be delivered during the first half of 2023.
“Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Glaston made the decision to cease its operations in and business with Russia. In the review period, our operations in Russia were discontinued and all employment contracts, six in total, were terminated. Two upgrade projects totalling €0.7m were stopped and removed from the order backlog. New orders have not been taken from Russia since February. In 2021, Russia accounted for less than 1% of Glaston’s net sales.
“We have taken action towards reaching our sustainability targets, specifically to reduce our own CO2 emissions. Of Glaston’s greenhouse gas emissions, over 80% occur in Finland, Germany and China. Our production units in Finland and Germany started using renewable electricity in the early part of the year. In addition, we made investment decisions to improve the energy efficiency at our production unit in Switzerland, where renewable energy is already used.
“In the January−June period, the demand environment for Glaston’s products and services remained healthy in most of our markets. Amid the still ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, customers’ decision making for new projects is slowing down, mainly due to stricter financing rules for the projects and soaring materials and energy costs.” To read the full financial report, visit glaston.net.
