KBA Halves Loss with Spike in Press Orders

Higher level of plant utilisation
The backlog of unfilled orders at the end of June was worth €541.1m, a good €100m more than at the end of March and higher than the prior-year figure of €537.8 million which included web press contracts booked prior to the financial crisis. KBA’s sheetfed plants returned to full-time work in June as production was cranked up again. Short-time schemes were also scaled back at its other factories and are likely to be terminated – at least provisionally – this autumn as work is distributed among group operations to maintain employment, and web press business gathers momentum.