KBA Releases Positive Figures for the First Half-Year

drupa fills order books
At this year’s drupa trade fair in May KBA unveiled a new digital inkjet press, developed and built at its main plant in Würzburg, which signals KBA’s entry into the growing digital print market. In the medium term this should help to offset, at least in part, a slump in web press sales. The first orders are expected in the second half of the year. drupa helped swell the inflow of sheetfed orders in the second quarter to a high of €211.1m. Over the full six months sheetfed orders rose by 17.4 percent to €364m (2011: €310.1m). However, the lack of investment by web printers caused a drop in new orders for web and special presses to €215.3m, below last year’s extraordinarily high figure of €372.8m which had been boosted by some major contracts for special presses. In total the group order intake came to €579.3m, 15.2 percent less than the previous year’s record high of €682.9m.