KONECRANES PLC'S ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ON MARCH 21, 2013: PRESIDENT AND CEO PEKKA LUNDMARK COMMENTS ON THE FIRST QUARTER DEMAND AND KEY STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

The Annual General Meeting of Konecranes Plc is being held today, Thursday March 21, 2013, starting at 10 am Finnish time in Hyvinkää, Finland. In his presentation, Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO, summarizes the year 2012, comments on the first quarter demand, and describes the company’s key strategic initiatives going forward:

"I am pleased with many aspects of our performance in 2012. A sales growth of 14 percent and EPS growth of 32 percent were good achievements. Service’s prioritization of profitability over growth delivered good results, and we are taking actions to align the structure of our equipment business with the ongoing market shifts.

Demand for our products and services has developed according to expectations in the beginning of 2013. The recently announced major orders of container handling equipment to Indonesia and a Goliath gantry crane to a Brazilian shipyard highlight our competitiveness in emerging markets and lend support to a strong order intake in the first quarter of 2013.

We are focusing on three major initiatives to further develop our competitiveness:

First, we are developing our offering and introducing new technologies that enable real-time visibility to the condition and performance of the lifting devices and machine tools that we are servicing. Our new TRUCONNECT® Remote Service, intelligent machines with smart features and automation are key elements of this development. Another key aspect in our R&D work is eco efficiency: we recently presented the world’s first hybrid reach stacker for container handling.

Second, our global market share target of 30 percent requires a strong position in emerging markets. While already roughly a third of our sales are derived from emerging markets, further steps call for products between the current high-end offering and the typical low-end equipment widely used in emerging markets. These “mid segment products” typically offer a wide selection of basic features, without sacrificing the safety or quality of the high-end offering.

Third, we are renewing our fragmented IT systems to create real-time visibility to customer demand, field service, supply chain, and financials, to name a few important examples. The first installations have now been made, and most parts will be completed within the next 2-3 years. We believe that this initiative has the potential to deliver a substantial productivity improvement.

Finally, I have decided to remain based in Singapore for another 6-12 months since my work and objectives to improve our contact network in Asia are only halfway finished. However, I plan to move my base back to Finland, at the latest, in mid-2014.”

The financial guidance issued on January 31, 2013 is reiterated:

Based on the offer base and the near-term demand outlook, the year 2013 sales are expected to be stable or slightly higher than in 2012. We expect the 2013 operating profit to improve from 2012.

The presentation material will also be available on the company website at www.konecranes.com after the closing of the AGM.

KONECRANES PLC

Miikka Kinnunen
Director, Investor Relations

FURTHER INFORMATION
Analysts and Investors:
Miikka Kinnunen, Director, Investor Relations, Konecranes Plc,
tel. +358 20 427 2050

Press:
Mikael Wegmüller, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Konecranes Plc, tel. +358 20 427 2008

Konecranes is a world-leading group of Lifting Businesses™, serving a broad range of customers, including manufacturing and process industries, shipyards, ports, and terminals. Konecranes provides productivity-enhancing lifting solutions as well as services for lifting equipment and machine tools of all makes. In 2012, Group sales totaled EUR 2,170 million. The Group has 12,100 employees, at 626 locations in 48 countries. Konecranes is listed on NASDAQ OMX Helsinki (symbol: KCR1V).

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Major media
www.konecranes.com