Finnish mining and metal manufacturing equipment provider Outotec has issued its financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year 2013.
Accordingly, in the fourth quarter the operating profit of Outotec decreased to €25.4 million, down 66 percent year on year, while its sales revenues fell 30 percent to €457.2 million compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, Outotec's order intake was €426.1 million in the given quarter, declining by 10 percent year on year.
In 2013, Outotec's operating profit decreased by 23 percent to €141.9 million compared to 2012, while the company's sales revenues reached €1.9 billion, down eight percent year on year. In the given period, Outotec's order intake amounted to €1.51 billion, decreasing by 27 percent year on year.
Outotec stated that the uncertainty in the world economy, weakened metals prices and the need to improve capital returns reduced mining and metal companies' investments. These matters together with the devaluation of emerging market currencies were reflected in the drop of Outotec's full-year order intake. In the short-term, Outotec expects mining industry's capital expenditure to shrink 10-20 percent whereas the demand for services is expected to grow. Given the continuing slowness of the capital expenditures the company launched a program to reduce its annual operational costs. So far, Outotec has achieved €12 million annualized savings, targeting to reach €50 million annualized savings by the end of the current year through further reduction of personnel, usage of external services, and travelling.