DENMARK – The Danfoss Group have released their financial report for the first quarter of the year which revealed that the group was enjoying a good start to 2016. In the first quarter, the Group disclosed that their net sales had increased to £ 1,003m from £997m in the first quarter of 2015, meaning that in local currency net sales had grown by 2%. Similarly, the group’s earnings (EBIT) reached £103m, which is £ 10.6m more than in the same period last year, equating to an increase of 11%.

Commenting on the financial results, president & CEO, Niels B. Christiansen said “Many good trends were evident in the year’s first quarter. Our earnings capacity is strong, and our strategic growth initiatives are beginning to show results. At market level, there are signs that Europe is slowly gaining momentum, and that optimism is spreading in North America. These are important, large markets. Furthermore, our efforts in new markets such as India, Turkey and Mexico continue to show good progress. Overall, we are on track to deliver on our expectations to the year.”

The group did however say that, in general, the low market growth rates that characterized 2015 continued in the first quarter of 2016, and market conditions remained mixed across the regions. The top performers for the group were the  business segments Danfoss Cooling, Danfoss Heating and Danfoss Power Solutions which delivered growth in local currency and increased earnings – mainly driven by good momentum in North America, India and parts of Europe. Conversely, issues such as low commodity prices led to generally subdued investment levels in some industrial sectors, such as oil & gas, mining and marine, which resulted in Danfoss Drives achieving slightly lower net sales compared to their good first quarter last year.

The company ended their statement by declaring that they expected to maintain or expand their market share, and maintain the EBIT margin on a level with 2015 for the rest of the coming year.