German press maker KBA says it “bucked the industry trend” last year by trading to its third consecutive pre-tax profit.

Group sales were marginally lower than in 2010 1.18 billion Euros leading to a profit in “single digit millions”, despite slacker demand in the second six months and delays to shipments in the fourth quarter.

However, at more than 1.5 billion Euros, the volume of new orders surpassed the prior-year figure by over 20 per cent, primarily due to brisk demand for special presses. The order backlog at year’s end topped 800 million Euros, exceeding the prior-year figure by more than 80 per cent.

As management indicated at an analysts’ conference in December, while the world’s second-largest press manufacturer failed to achieve its growth targets for sales and earnings, its performance was once again above the industry average.

A major contributory factor was the group’s balance of high-volume and niche products.

The company says 2012 has started well in terms of sales and new orders. Official figures for 2011 will be released on March 30.