The value of incoming orders improved by 2% to EUR 2,461 million in the reporting period (previous year: EUR 2,419 million). Consolidated sales rose by 11% to EUR 2,202 million (previous year: EUR 1,988 million). Significantly higher material and logistics costs had a negative impact on operating earnings, but Jungheinrich was still able to generate EBIT of €162 million, which was only slightly below the previous year's level (prior year: €169 million). As expected, the EBIT-ROS return on sales of 7.4 per cent was lower than in the same period last year (8.5 per cent). "Jungheinrich generated robust earnings in the first half of 2022 despite challenging market conditions," explains Dr. Lars Brzoska, CEO of Jungheinrich AG. "The Russia-Ukraine war and the profound disruptions in global supply chains with massive increases in material costs have caused a high degree of uncertainty in the market, but Jungheinrich was nevertheless able to increase its incoming orders and achieve good sales growth in this adverse environment. The main driver of higher consolidated net sales was new truck business with very good growth rates, especially for automated systems. Our short-term hire and used equipment business as well as the After Sales business field also made a noticeable contribution to the increase in net sales," says Dr. Brzoska.

Jungheinrich deliberately stepped up the build-up of inventories in the first half of the year to ensure its ability to deliver. Due to the sharp rise in working capital, the new key performance indicator free cash flow reported by Jungheinrich for the first time declined to minus €270 million (prior year: plus €84 million). As part of its Strategy 2025+, Jungheinrich is driving forward the further development of energy storage systems based on lithium-ion technology in particular. The company is focusing on optimizing the design of new material handling equipment, as Jungheinrich has already done with its lithium-ion integrated Powerline trucks. Digital products, the automation of material handling equipment and the optimization of automated systems are further key areas of development at Jungheinrich. At the end of May, the company presented innovative Mobile Robots applications and the PowerCube compact container warehouse at LogiMAT in Stuttgart, setting new standards in the field of automated warehouse systems. Jungheinrich significantly increased its research and development expenditure by 27 per cent to EUR 61 million in the first half of 2022 (previous year: EUR 48 million). As part of the targeted expansion of its strategic fields of activity, Jungheinrich continued to expand its workforce as planned in the first half of 2022. The number of employees in the Group rose by 297 full-time equivalents, or 1.6 per cent, to 19,400. Jungheinrich is sticking to its forecast for the full 2022 financial year despite the high level of economic uncertainty caused by the war with regard to the impact on supply chains and on energy, commodity and material prices.

The value of incoming orders, which encompasses all business fields - new truck business, short-term hire and used equipment as well as after-sales services - amounted to €2,461 million in the reporting period, up 2 per cent on the previous year's figure of €2,419 million. Immediately after Russia's attack on Ukraine, Jungheinrich took action and decided to impose a comprehensive ban on exports of new and used equipment as well as spare parts to Russia and Belarus with effect from March 2, 2022. Incoming orders for the first half of 2022 and the order backlog as at June 30 were adjusted for orders from Russia as a result.

The order backlog for new business amounted to EUR 1,814 million at the end of the first half of 2022 and was therefore EUR 522 million or 40% higher than the previous year's figure (EUR 1,292 million). Compared to the order backlog value of EUR 1,519 million at the end of 2021, there was an increase of EUR 295 million or 19%. The reason for the continued very high order backlog was the still limited availability of production material for further processing.

At EUR 2,202 million, Group sales in the first half of 2022 were 11% higher than in the same period of the previous year (EUR 1,988 million). Revenue in Germany, the most important single market, rose by 7% to EUR 514 million in the reporting period (previous year: EUR 479 million). Foreign sales increased more significantly by 12% to EUR 1,688 million (previous year: EUR 1,509 million). The foreign share thus increased slightly to 77% (previous year: 76%). Sales outside Europe amounted to EUR 317 million (previous year: EUR 248 million). This corresponds to a 14% share of Group sales (previous year: 12%).

The main driver for the year-on-year increase in consolidated sales was new business in particular, including very good growth in the automatic systems business. The customer service business and sales of rental and used equipment also made a noticeable contribution to the increase in sales. The challenges in the supply chains as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic remained very high. Due to global networking, the effects of the supply chain bottlenecks extended to the entire supplier and material portfolio as well as the associated logistics capacities.

EBIT fell by EUR 7 million or 4% to EUR 162 million (previous year: EUR 169 million). At 7.4%, the EBIT margin was significantly lower than in the same period of the previous year (8.5%). Earnings after tax amounted to EUR 103 million (previous year: EUR 121 million). Earnings per preferred share (based on the share of earnings attributable to Jungheinrich AG shareholders) amounted to 1.02 euros (prior year: 1.19 euros).

Cash flow from operating activities amounted to minus EUR 220 million in the period from January to June 2022, a decrease of EUR 335 million compared to the same period of the previous year (plus EUR 115 million). The significant decline was largely due to the sharp increase in working capital, particularly in inventories to ensure delivery capability and finished goods for sales. This increase had an additional negative impact of EUR 219 million on cash flow from operating activities compared to the same period of the previous year. Free cash flow, the sum of cash flow from operating activities and investing activities, fell significantly to minus EUR 270 million (previous year: plus EUR 84 million).

Despite the high level of economic uncertainty due to the Russia-Ukraine war with further intensifying effects on supply chains and energy, raw material and material prices, as well as the increased risk of a possible shortage of gas supplies from Russia, Jungheinrich's expectations for 2022 as a whole have not changed since reporting on the first quarter of 2022 in May 2022.

The Group currently expects incoming orders to be slightly below the previous year (2021: EUR 4.9 billion). Jungheinrich expects consolidated net sales in 2022 to be slightly above the previous year's figure (2021: EUR 4.2 billion) if bottlenecks in the supply chains persist. EBIT and EBT are both expected to be significantly below the previous year's figures (2021: EUR 360 million and EUR 349 million respectively). The company also anticipates significantly lower returns for EBIT and EBT compared to the previous year (2021: 8.5% and 8.2% respectively).

With regard to the development of material costs, Jungheinrich expects the current very high level to continue. In order to implement the 2025+ strategy, the company is also planning to expand its personnel capacities in the remaining months of 2022, particularly in the strategic fields of automation, digitalization, energy systems, efficiency, global footprint and sustainability.

ROCE for the 2022 financial year is likely to be significantly below the previous year's figure (2021: 20.2%). Due to the current business development, free cash flow is now likely to be significantly negative in the reporting year after a positive figure in the previous year (EUR 89 million).

With regard to the coronavirus pandemic, there is still considerable uncertainty about further developments and the associated impact on business. The forecast is therefore based on the assumption that there will be no widespread production stoppages until the end of the year and that supply chains will remain largely intact.