Frankfurt, Germany – German industrial giant Siemens reported a jump in first quarter profits Thursday, and said it was on track to meet its full-year targets despite a drop in orders from China.
The group, whose products range from trains to factory equipment, made a net profit of 2.4 billion euros ($2.6 billion) between October and December, a 61-percent increase on a year earlier.
Sales rose “in most industrial businesses”, Siemens said, giving the group total revenues of 18.4 billion euros compared with 18.1 billion euros over the same period a year ago.
Siemens said orders nearly doubled in the mobility division in part thanks to two large orders from Austria.
This helped offset a more than 30-percent drop in orders at its “digital industries” unit, which supplies technologies for factory automation. The decline was “due particularly” to lower demand from China, Siemens said.
The company said it expected demand in the automation business to pick up again in the second half of the fiscal year, following “destocking” by customers, especially in China.
“Siemens again delivered a strong quarter, maintaining a trajectory of profitable growth,” CEO Roland Busch said in a statement.
The company confirmed its outlook of achieving revenue growth of four to eight percent over the full year, assuming that “geopolitical tensions do not further increase”.