In the first nine months of 2020, order intake declined by CHF 243 million, minus 2% currency-adjusted and minus 3.6% organic. Currency impact was a negative 6.5% and acquisitions contributed CHF 44.9 million.

Organic order intake in Sulzer’s end markets was mixed: orders from oil and gas grew organically by 1.7% compared with the same period a year ago, while chemicals were organically flat (-0.6%). The municipal water market held up well and our water segment was flat organically, excluding two large water infrastructure projects booked in the Middle East last year. Orders from the power market were also flat for the nine-month period, dampened by pandemic-driven site access restrictions in our service business. In Applicator Systems, significant order growth in healthcare could not offset the impact of lockdowns on the beauty and dental markets, but all applicator segments rebounded strongly in Q3 on continuing market reopening, doubling sequentially.

Orders increased in Asia-Pacific (+3.1% organic) and declined in EMEA (-6.3% organic) and the Americas (-4.8 % organic).

Haselmeier acquisition

Sulzer completed its acquisition of drug delivery device developer and manufacturer Haselmeier on October 1, 2020.

The EUR 100 million transaction offers substantial value creation potential as Sulzer complements its healthcare portfolio and leverages its APS expertise in precision injection molding to seize growth opportunities in the fast-growing drug delivery device market. The integration of the acquired business is expected to generate cost synergies through insourcing and leveraging the scale of the combined businesses.