HTP High Tech Plastics AG (A-7201 Neudörfl; www.htp.at) achieved its sales target for 2003 with sales of EUR 81.5m, marking a 15% increase on 2002. Incoming orders worth almost EUR 100m brought up orders on hand to just short of EUR 360m. According to provisional figures, the injection moulding group´s EBIT nevertheless slipped to a minus of EUR 6.7m, which means that a “clearly negative” result is to be expected.

The Austrian company said the deterioration in earnings was due mainly to the restructuring of its mould-making segment. Operations at the Tribuswinkel site have been merged with those at Neudörfl. The new technology centre established there will concentrate on special mould construction and injection moulding for precision parts and ultra-small components. Apart from this, mould-making capacities at the Fohnsdorf site have been reduced because HTP intends to focus its activities there on moulds for captive use. For external customers, HTP will manufacture only technically sophisticated moulds such as those used in multi-component injection moulding.

In addition to the restructuring costs, the company also has reported a negative value adjustment of inventories amounting to EUR 1.2m. Personnel expenditures of EUR 31.5m also developed disproportionately in relation to production output, due mainly to the integration of Kocian Kunststofftechnik GmbH (A-2292 Loimersdorf; www.kocian.at), acquired in February 2003. Once restructuring has been completed, during the course of this year, HTP said it expects to be able to process its current orders profitably.