Sentiment in the mining industry showed positive signs in the first quarter, although customers continued to focus on improving their cash flow and profitability, Finnish engineering group Outotec said Thursday.
"Our first-quarter order intake improved significantly from the comparison period in 2016. The improvement reflects the more positive market sentiment in the mining industry but also the low order intake in the comparison period," CEO Markku Terasvasara said in the company's Q1 results statement.
"In addition to equipment orders in minerals processing, we got some larger plant orders in metals refining. We were also able to increase our service order intake by 13%," he added.
In Q1, gold, aluminum, copper, and zinc projects were most active, with customers in the Middle East, Central and South America and Russia continuing to lead the way in terms of investment, the company said.
Business across other markets was mainly related to smaller equipment deliveries, while the Asian market was "more subdued," Outotec added.
Looking ahead, "investments in minerals processing are expected to follow the industry's production levels, providing continued opportunities for process improvements, smaller equipment deliveries, and services," Outotec said.
"Gold and copper projects are likely to continue being most active, but other base metals projects are also showing increased activity," the company added.
Outotec reported an order intake in Q1 of Eur318.4 million ($348 million), up 87% from Eur170.2 million in Q1 last year.
The growth was attributable to equipment orders in the company's minerals processing segment as well as larger plant orders in the metals, energy & water segment.
Service order intake was up 13% year-on-year at Eur115 million due to growth in spare parts.
