The industrial group Sulzer did better than expected on its order intake at the end of September. According to its press release published on Tuesday and reported by the AWP news agency, order intake reached 2.75 billion francs after nine months, up 1.8% year on year. The Winterthur-based group, a specialist in fluid engineering, is confirming its targets for 2026. Behind this total, however, the divisions are on clearly diverging paths: only one is growing, the others are declining.
A total above consensus
The figure of 2.75 billion francs exceeds the AWP consensus, which had anticipated 2.65 billion. The gap with analysts' expectations therefore amounts to around 100 million francs, or a little less than 4% above the average forecast. It is this gap, more than the growth itself, that makes today's news.
Compared with last year, the increase remains modest: 1.8%. The news report specifies neither the absolute amount of orders over the same period in 2025, nor whether this increase is in reported terms or at constant scope and exchange rates. Sulzer, for its part, highlights growth throughout the year, which allows it to maintain its annual ambitions.
Two readings of this indicator therefore coexist. The first focuses on the positive surprise relative to market expectations. The second points out that an increase of less than 2% year on year, driven by a single division, leaves the group dependent on a limited number of growth engines.
Flow, the only division growing
The Flow division accounts for most of the momentum. Its order intake jumped 11.6% to 1.28 billion francs, thanks to the energy sector. It thus represents nearly half of the group's total orders over nine months.
Not all activities benefited from this trend, however. According to the news report, the Water and Industry unit struggled. Sulzer gives the reason: “Supply chain disruptions and project execution delays continued due to the still tense geopolitical situation in the Middle East”. The news report does not quantify the change in this unit's orders.
Services slightly down
The Services division saw its orders slip 0.9% to 1.06 billion francs. The decline is limited, but it contrasts with Flow's momentum. The available sources do not detail the causes.
For an industrial group, a stable services business often acts as a cushion against the ups and downs of large projects. A slight slowdown does not change its nature, but it means that this pillar did not contribute to growth over the period.
Chemtech, the weak spot
The sharpest decline concerns Chemtech. The division's orders sank by nearly 15% to 413.2 million francs. Sulzer attributes this to postponements of large-scale projects.
The distinction matters: a postponement shifts an order in time, whereas a cancellation makes it disappear. The news report, however, gives no indication of the timetable for these projects or of the likelihood that they will materialise later. It is therefore not possible, at this stage, to say whether this dip will be made up.
2026 targets confirmed
Despite these differences between divisions, Sulzer is maintaining its targets for the full year. These are company forecasts, not actual results:
- organic order growth of 1 to 5% compared with the previous year;
- sales growth of 2 to 5% compared with the previous year;
- an EBITDA margin of around 16.5%.
The 1.8% increase in orders over nine months sits at the lower end of the range announced for orders, although the two figures are not necessarily comparable: the target is expressed as organic growth, whereas the news report does not specify the calculation basis for the end-of-September figure. For sales and margin, no interim figures are available in the sources, which makes it impossible to measure where the group stands relative to these targets.
What these figures say about the group
The nine-month results depict a two-speed group. On one side, Flow is benefiting from energy-related demand and pulling the whole upwards. On the other, Services is eroding slightly and Chemtech is suffering from the postponement of large projects, while the Water and Industry unit remains exposed to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
For an industrial group, this dependence on a few buoyant markets is worth watching: it supports the figures as long as demand holds, but it also concentrates risk. The sources do not, however, provide any information on the share price reaction, or on any possible effects on employment.
Orders booked today feed activity in the following quarters. The final quarter will show whether the confirmation of the targets is reflected in the annual accounts, and whether Chemtech's postponed projects eventually return to the order book.
