Cargotec as an investment

(an extract from Cargotec's financial statements review 2024, 12 February 2025)

Demand for Hiab's solutions is influenced by general economic growth, construction market development and truck sales, among others. Higher than past decade inflation and interest rates as well as geopolitical instabilities continue to negatively impact the operating environment. Also the tariffs and tariff threats by the new US administration create uncertainty in the growth outlook and increase unpredictability of the operating environment, especially in North America. However, decrease in interest rates, easing inflation and overall enhancing economic outlook may boost the customer investment activity, but timing remains uncertain as customers likely still delay investment decisions, expecting more rate cuts in the future. The 2025 outlooks for the construction market and truck sales in Hiab's main markets have also been turning slightly more positive.

According to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) world economic outlook update published in January 2025, the global economy is estimated to have grown by 3.2 percent in 2024 and projected to grow by 3.3 percent in 2025. In the IMF’s advanced economies group (a group of countries which includes several key markets for Hiab, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany), the IMF estimates a 1.7 percent growth in 2024 and a 1.9 percent growth in 2025. The forecast for 2025 is broadly unchanged from IMF's previous outlook. The report notes that medium-term risks to the baseline are tilted to the downside, while the near-term outlook is characterized by divergent risks. Upside risks could lift already-robust growth in the United States in the short run, whereas risks in other countries are on the downside amid elevated policy uncertainty.¹

1 International Monetary Fund: World Economic Outlook Update, January 2025