KBA Reports Jump in Press Orders

The decline in operating profit generated by web and special presses, from €31.8 million in 2009 to €14 million, reflected more acutely than in the previous year the plunge in demand for web presses: the backlog of orders from better years, which helped sustain figures in 2008 and 2009, was no longer there to cushion the impact of unsatisfactory profit margins in a buyers’ market and the poor level of capacity utilisation at the production plants concerned.