Strong orders, guidance confirmed

Sulzer Q3 orders grew 15.7% currency-adjusted and 11.8% organic compared to Q3 2020, mainly driven by Water and Industry in Flow Equipment as well as a continued upswing in Services and in China for Chemtech. In the first nine months of 2021, order intake was flat (-2.8% organic) compared to the same period a year ago. Currency impact was a negative 0.2% and acquisitions contributed CHF 65.4 million.

Order intake in Flow Equipment in the third quarter 2021 was up 23% currency-adjusted (+15% organic). The Water segment, which accounts for more than 40% of Flow Equipment division orders, was up 20% organically driven by the municipal wastewater market. The Industry segment performed well, up 14% currency-adjusted and organically. Energy segment orders grew 12% on increased tendering activity, despite our continued order selectivity.

Q3 orders in our Services business increased organically by 10% (+12% currency-adjusted), with the demand increase mainly coming from EMEA (+22% currency-adjusted) and Americas (+17% currency-adjusted). Asia-Pacific is still hampered by pandemic-related site access restrictions.

Chemtech continued its growth path in Q3, fueled by an upswing in field service activity in the US and continued growth in China (+14% organic). Momentum is building in other regions and our commercial pipeline in Renewables continues to be very active.

New division names and brand refresh

As we renew our focus on our core flow control business activities, we concluded that our division names no longer reflect their widened scope of business activity.

Pumps Equipment becomes Flow Equipment to encompass all of our offering, which expands far beyond pumps: compressors, grinders, agitators, digital and our comprehensive portfolio of water treatment solutions. Rotating Equipment Services becomes simply Services, encapsulating the growth of the business into a full-spectrum service provider, going beyond equipment that rotates. Chemtech will retain its name, but its journey towards Renewable applications is well under way.

Spin-off of medmix

medmix was successfully spun-off and its first trading day as a separate company was on September 30. medmix 9M orders were CHF 401.6m, up 58.3% YoY (+41.3% organic). medmix is now classified as discontinued operations in Sulzer's 2021 reporting.

Outlook 2021

Although we expect the pandemic to continue to restrict movements in some regions and the prevailing logistical bottlenecks to pose challenges to our operations, the order growth momentum seen in Q3 is expected to continue in the fourth quarter.

We confirm our 2021 guidance (ex medmix) with orders to be up 2-3% and sales up 6-8%. Operational profitability is expected to be around 9%, above pre-pandemic levels.