By Bernadette Hogg
(Reuters) -Swiss lift and escalator maker Schindler lowered its market outlook for new installations in the Americas from its prior assessment, it said in an investor presentation on Wednesday.
The company now expects the market to contract by up to 5% this year after previously estimating 2025 growth of up to 5%.
The Americas account for 29% of Schindler’s group revenue, with more than 95% of the raw materials and components the company uses in products sold in the U.S. sourced locally, analysts at Jefferies said.
The company estimates an annualised gross cost impact of 33 million Swiss francs ($40.01 million) from tariffs, with a 23% impact in 2025.
“About 80% of the impact comes from the import to the U.S. from China, and 20% from the imports to the U.S. from the rest of the world,” CFO Carla De Geyseleer said in a call with analysts.
“The China tariffs do play a big role to our suppliers,” CEO Paolo Compagna said, adding that Schindler was trying to mitigate the impact by enforcing the ongoing contract conditions as much as possible and working on pricing in its new installation and modernisation businesses.
“So far, we don’t have signals of a visible slowdown,” Compagna said when asked about whether the company had seen any change in customer buying patterns since the tariffs were announced.
Lucerne-based Schindler reported a first-quarter order intake of 2.95 billion Swiss francs on Wednesday, a 6% rise from a year earlier in local currencies, with organic growth across all regions except China.
That beat analysts’ average forecast of 2.86 billion francs for the quarter, a poll compiled by Vara Research showed.
The company also confirmed its guidance for 2025.
($1 = 0.8248 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Bernadette Hogg; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Rachna Uppal and Kate Mayberry)
