PKC sales fell 35% in 2009

At the beginning of November, the Group structure by organising the Wiring Harnesses business into a subgroup, with profit centres in Estonia, Poland, Brazil and the United States. These business centres will continue to be managed and supported by the Finnish parent company, PKC Wiring Systems. The recruitment of a Managing Director for our Wiring Harnesses business was completed in January 2010. The deliveries of heavy-duty trucks and new orders for them fell significantly in all our markets compared with the previous year. The number of registrations halved in our main market, Europe. Sales of agricultural tractors in Europe went down by about a quarter on the previous year. Deliveries to the machine construction industry in Europe remained at about two-fifths of what they had been a year before. Signs of a gradual recovery in the market are reflected in the fact that in the last quarter there was an increase in orders for new trucks received by our main customers in Europe that exceeded the average production levels of 2009. The number of deliveries and new orders in South America fell by approximately a third on the previous year. A sign of recovery in the South American markets is reflected in the fact that the number of orders for trucks received by our customers there exceeded the number of deliveries in the second half of the year. In North America deliveries of recreational commodities and the value of new orders received by our customers were down by around 50% on the previous year. Weakening of the global economics and market uncertainty manifested themselves in the Electronics business as a declining demand for services and increased unpredictability. Apart from in the Asian markets, industrial investments fell substantially, which in turn cut the number of the Group's deliveries of industrial electronics by about a fifth. The Wiring Harnesses business during the report year fell by 39.4% to EUR 149.4 million (246.5 million). The segment's share of consolidated net sales was 74.0% (79.1%). The Wiring Harnesses business reported an operating profit of EUR -3.9 million (9.7 million), or -2.6% of the segment's net sales (4.0%). The Electronics business segment's net sales fell by 19.5% to EUR 52.5 million (65.2 million), accounting for 26.0% of consolidated net sales (20.9%). It generated an operating profit of EUR 4.6 million (11.3 million), equivalent to 8.7% of the segment's net sales (17.3%).