Challenging times for Oerlikon

Oerlikon’s results in the third quarter of 2016 reflect the continued positive development in the surface solutions business, but were still impacted by weak market demand in filaments equipment, and in the agriculture and energy sectors.

The Surface Solutions Segment saw stable sales development in most of its key markets (tooling, automotive, general industries and power generation). The exception was aviation, where an uptick was registered. The filaments equipment market continued its downtrend, in line with China’s 13th Five-Year Plan and Oerlikon’s expectations. However, there appears to be the first light on the horizon and the Segment expects that the filaments equipment market will see a turnaround in 2016.

A positive trend was also noted in staple fibres, bulked continuous filaments (carpet yarn) and plastic processing markets, which contributed to the Segment’s improved order intake. In the Drive Systems Segment, all of the key markets demonstrated flattish demand, though there was some encouraging development in the Indian construction and agriculture industries, as well as in the automotive sector.

Oerlikon expects the remaining months of 2016 to remain challenging as a result of the ongoing uncertain global economic climate and conservative investment attitudes in several of its end markets. However, given the positive results from the surface solutions business and indications that 2016 will see a trend reversal in the manmade fibres business, Oerlikon confirms its 2016 guidance. The company expects to deliver order intake and sales between CHF 2.3 billion and CHF 2.5 billion and an EBITDA margin in the mid-teens for the full year 2016.