Swiss engineering firm ABB (ABBN.S) said on Wednesday its order situation could improve in the coming months, suggesting there was some light amid the gloom surrounding the industrial sector caused to the coronavirus crisis.
The maker of industrial robots and electric car charging stations expects the fall in orders caused by the pandemic to improve in the third quarter, although it said revenues would take longer to recover.
“ABB expects some improvement in year-on-year order decline already in the third quarter,” the company said, after posting better-than-expected results for the April to June period.
“Revenues are expected to remain strongly impacted on a year-on-year basis, at best recovering somewhat in the fourth quarter,” it added.
Chief Executive Bjorn Rosengren said the company’s second quarter had been “heavily impacted by COVID-19.”
The crisis has hit demand from many customers, particularly in the oil and gas, power generation and automotive industries, ABB said.
