Level of orders

Despite the difficult market conditions, the KION Group’s order intake amounted to €9,442.5 million, which was 3.6 percent higher than the figure for the previous year (2019: €9,111.7 million). With the exception of China, the market as a whole contracted sharply and the order intake of the Industrial Trucks & Services segment fell by 8.8 percent to €5,776.3 million (2019: €6,330.5 million). This contrasted with a sharp rise of 31.9 percent to €3,654.5 million in the Supply Chain Solutions segment (2019: €2,771.0 million) that was due in large part to business with new customers. The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the increase in capital expenditure on automation solutions used for e-commerce.

Currency effects had an impact on the value of the KION Group’s order intake, reducing it by €154.4 million.

The Group’s order book amounted to €4,441.3 million as at December 31, 2020, a year-on-year rise of 22.3 percent (December 31, 2019: €3,631.7 million). This included an increase of €839.3 million in the Supply Chain Solutions segment, while the level in the Industrial Trucks & Services held more or less steady.