Christian Thönes, chairman of the executive board, says: "We are continuing to apply full power – especially in our ‘future fields’ of automation, digitisation and additive manufacturing.”
In terms of order intake, domestic orders amounted to €229.0 million (previous year: €251.7 million), while international orders reached €479.3 million (previous year: €570.1 million). According to DMG Mori, international orders accounted for 68% of orders (previous year: 69%). On 31 March 2019, the order backlog amounted to €1,688.8 million in comparison with €1,609.9 million on 31 December 2018.
On 31 March 2019, the group had 7,489 employees, including 346 trainees, compared with 7,503 on 31 December 2018. At the end of the first quarter, 4,512 employees (60%) worked for the group’s domestic companies and 2,977 employees (40%) for international companies. The personnel expenses ratio amounted to 22.4% (previous year: 23.2%), while personnel costs totalled €155 million (previous year: €144.7 million).
Expenses for research and development in the first quarter totalled €13.9 million (previous year: €13.8 million). At the company’s open house exhibition in Pfronten at the start of the year, across an area of more than 7,500 m2, DMG Mori presented its entire technological expertise, comprising 70 machines, two world premieres and 20 automation solutions, as well as the integrated digitisation of the entire process chain – from planning and preparatory work, through production and monitoring, to service.
Looking ahead to the remainder of 2019, the worldwide machine tool market is expected to grow by only 2.3% according to the latest April forecast from German Machine Tool Builders’ Association (VDW) and the British Economic Research Institute Oxford Economics (October forecast: +3.6%). Thus, the general trend of overall economic decline has also reached the machine tool industry, states DMG Mori. Nevertheless, for the full year 2019, the company forecasts order intake of around €2.6 billion and sales revenues of approximately €2.65 billion. EBIT is expected to amount to around €200 million and free cash flow to €150 million.
The current financial year is marked by EMO – the biggest machine tool trade fair worldwide. From 16 to 21 September, DMG Mori says it will be the largest exhibitor in Hanover, displaying a variety of innovative technology, automation and digitisation solutions over an area of 10,000 m2.