Mayr-Melnhof Group presents results for the first half of the year

The Group achieved overall high capacity utilization in the first six months of 2017 and was able to maintain the previous year's level in sales and volume

The Group's consolidated sales rose slightly from EUR 1,142.2 million to EUR 1,150.3 million, according to Mayr-Melnhof.

At EUR 102.1 million, operating profit was EUR 8.7 million, 7.9 percent below the value for the first half of the previous year. Thus, the Group's operating margin was at 8.9 percent, following 9.7 percent in the first six months of 2016.

Financial income of EUR 1.3 million was offset by financial expenses of EUR -2.9 million. Owing to the deconsolidation of the Tunisian packaging companies, a one-off expenditure of EUR 2.3 million was incurred due to the accumulated foreign currency translation.

At EUR 71.9 million, the profit for the period was 10.6 percent below the comparative figure for the previous year, representing 6.3 percent of sales.

Against the background of increasingly better demand on the European carton board market, the average order backlog of MM Karton in the first half of 2017 was around 76,000 tons, following 50,000 tons in the comparative period of the previous year.

Sales rose moderately to EUR 524.2 million as the price increase for recycled carton board only began to take effect as of the second quarter.

Operating profit, at EUR 35.1 million, was consequently below the comparative period of the previous year. The operating margin reached therefore 6.7 percent.

Demand on the European folding carton market was restrained throughout the first few months of the year, and started to show signs of improvement just at the end of the second quarter.

The first half-year was therefore characterized by continued strong price competition due to sufficient production capacities as well as heterogeneous capacity utilization between the production sites, which, however, diminished.

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