Alstom sees strong Q3 backed by record Grid orders
ENGINEERING group Alstom, which supports thousands of jobs in the Midlands, has announced orders worth more than £4bn for its third quarter.
Over the three month period (October 1 to December 31, 2011), the French-owned company registered orders of £4.09bn (€4.9bn), which it said confirmed the sustained commercial activity of the past four quarters.
Across its divisions, Thermal Power booked the same level of orders as in the previous quarter £1.59bn (€1.9bn), benefiting from successes in Iraq and Poland. Renewable Power booked £0.25bn (€0.3bn) of orders, in the absence of large projects. Transport recorded a high number of small and medium sized contracts, reaching an order level of £1.25bn (€1.5bn). Lastly, Grid achieved its best quarter since its acquisition, with orders totaling £1bn (€1.2bn).
Sales rebounded in all sectors, with the exception of Renewable Power which recorded no significant revenue milestones on large hydro projects during the third quarter.
Alstom Grid contributed to the strong sector performance with a £200m contract win to supply Swedish state-owned utility company Svenska Kraftnät.
Alstom’s Staffordshire Engineering Centre of Excellence was awarded the multi-million pound contract to design and manufacture High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) equipment for the 1440 megawatt South-West HVDC Link Project. The new transmission infrastructure will help Sweden to integrate increasing amounts of renewable power into its electricity grid and improve the overall reliability of its network.
Orders booked by Alstom Transport were boosted by the Nottingham tram extension contract, in which Alstom is involved as part of the Tramlink Nottingham consortium. The project will see the construction of two new tram lines, expanding the existing network by 17.5 km. In December, Tramlink Nottingham took over responsibility for the operation of the existing Nottingham Express Transit (NET) line one, for the 23 year concession granted to the consortium.
Alstom’s share of the contract is around £290m (€350m) for the provision of tram maintenance, new trams and infrastructure (track, signalling and power supply) for the two new lines. Due to be completed in 2014, the system will help to create a first-class transport interchange at Nottingham railway station, meet the city’s transport demands and boost the local economy.
For the first nine months of 2011/12, Alstom’s order intake came up to £12.6bn (€15.1bn), a 20% increase compared to the first nine months of 2010/11. Orders growth continued to be supported by emerging markets, representing around 60% of the total orders at the end of December 2011. The group’s sales reached £11.93bn (€14.3bn), down 9% compared to the first nine months of 2010/11.
Patrick Kron, Alstom’s chairman and chief executive, said: “With orders close to €5bn, the third quarter 2011/12 extended the positive trend observed since the middle of last fiscal year. The book-to-bill ratio is above 1 for the fifth quarter in a row. Demand continues to be active in emerging markets for all sectors, whilst Transport booked a large number of contracts in Europe during the period.
“With over €1bn of announced awards to be booked before fiscal year end as well as the prospects on which we are working, we expect a strong fourth quarter of orders.
“Concerning sales, we anticipate the fourth quarter to show a marked progress over the previous ones.”
