Strong KUKA start in 2022 despite the supply crisis

• Customers worldwide are investing heavily in robotics and automation.
• Orders received in the first quarter increased by 42.0% year-on-year to around €1.3 billion.
• Sales revenues exceeded the prior-year figure by 18.3%.
• High capacity utilization: book-to-bill ratio rises to 1.48.
• Difficult economic environment poses challenges for KUKA.

KUKA has made a successful start into the new fiscal year and significantly increased orders received and sales revenues between January and March 2022.

KUKA Group recorded orders worth nearly €1.3 billion, up 42.0% (Q1/21: €890.5 million) and revenues rose by 18.3% to €853.4 million (Q1/21: €721.6 million). Furthermore, KUKA increased earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to €19.0 million (Q1/21: €8.2 million), with an EBIT margin of 2.2% (Q1/21: 1.1%).

All business units contributed to this strong performance with double-digit growth. In China, for example, orders received almost doubled and revenues increased by 61.2%. The Systems division also served more customers with automation solutions, with demand picking up in both North America and Europe.

The Robotics division achieved its highest quarterly figure to date, with orders worth almost €400 million. Robotics not only acquired customers in the traditional automotive sector, but also won contracts in growing general industry markets such as the consumer goods sector.

“KUKA has made a successful start into the new fiscal year, and our products and solutions are in greater demand than ever, across all divisions and regions,” said Peter Mohnen, CEO of KUKA Group. “In this context, we see promising long-term growth prospects in new markets, as well as potential pull-forward effects, with customers ordering earlier in anticipation of rising prices and longer delivery times.”

Positive outlook despite difficult times

Despite massive growth and strong figures, KUKA is also feeling the effects of the difficult global economic environment, including those of the war in Ukraine as well as the COVID pandemic, with supply bottlenecks, inflation and material shortages. This is also affecting KUKA’s production, with delayed order fulfillment and higher material and logistic costs and has impacted the EBIT and sales revenues of the Robotics division.

The full financial statement for the first quarter of 2022 can be found here.