Metso Outotec beats revenue forecasts, sees strong market

Finland’s Metso Outotec on Thursday beat fourth-quarter revenue expectations and the engineering group said it expected market activity to remain strong this year.

“Customer activity was particularly strong in investments in new equipment, whereas the pandemic-related restrictions somewhat limited the demand for on-site services,” CEO Pekka Vauramo said in a statement.

Metso Outotec, a maker of crushers, screeners and conveyors, said its revenue rose 31% to 1.28 billion euros ($1.46 billion), beating the 1.16 billion expected by analysts, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

The group had in November forecast strong activity after its third-quarter order intake doubled but sales were hurt by logistic bottlenecks and a component shortage.

Its orders in the fourth quarter rose to 3.10 billion euros from 3.00 billion a year earlier.

Scandinavian engineering groups saw soaring equipment orders in the second half of 2021 thanks to strong demand from the mining industry, which they expect to continue this year.

Swedish rival Sandvik in January reported a 23% rise in its fourth-quarter orders, saying the Omicron variant of covid-19 had so far had a very limited impact on the industry, while its local peer Epiroc forecast strong near-term demand after posting a record quarterly profit.

The mining industry had faced challenges from pandemic-related restrictions in 2020, when Metso Outotec saw a rebound in demand only in the last three months of the year.

($1 = 0.8757 euros)

(By Boleslaw Lasocki; Editing by Edmund Blair and Jason Neely)