Report on the second quarter 2011

CEO's comment:

Stable demand

"The business climate continued to develop favorably during the second quarter. Order intake continued to increase compared with the preceding year as well as the preceding quarter, and higher invoiced sales and production volumes resulted in improved earnings," says Sandvik's President and CEO Olof Faxander.

"It is satisfying that we continue to increase productivity and profitability in many areas in pace with growing volumes. During the quarter, inventories of finished products increased primarily to ensure high delivery reliability in connection with planned maintenance shutdowns during the seasonally weaker third quarter."

Order intake exceeded SEK 25 billion and invoiced sales exceeded SEK 23 billion, which in terms of volume were 20% and 24% higher, respectively, than the year-earlier period. Operating profit improved to SEK 3.6 billion, and the operating margin was 15.2%. Currency effects had an impact of more than SEK -700 M on earnings compared with the previous year.