FLSmidth & Co AS raised its sales and earnings guidance for the full-year 2006 after posting a first quarter pretax profit of DKr115m up from DKr50m the year before and above the consensus of DKr93m. Operating earnings rose to DKr106m from DKr25m and was also above the consensus of DKr85m as compiled by RB-Boersen. Sales were DKr2.356bn against DKr2.209bn and in-line with the market forecast of DKr2.354bn.

In the cement business segment, sales fell to DKr1.508bn from DKr1.601bn, which was primarily due to delays deriving from customer circumstances but FLSmidth & Co said these delays will be overcome during 2006. It added that in both cement and minerals, the first three months of the year saw the highest quarterly influx of new orders ever, resulting in a record high order backlog at the end of the quarter. The total order inflow in the first quarter amounted to DKr4.534bn, up from DKr3.311bn the year before. At the end of the first quarter, the order backlog totalled DKr13.433bn against DKr10.834bnat the end of 2005.
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