Explosives
FORCIT Explosives’ revenues declined during 2023 largely due to the partial normalisation of raw material prices after the high peak in 2022. End customer prices were adjusted downwards with decreasing raw material costs. Revenues in euro also decreased due to the significant devaluation of the Norwegian and Swedish currencies versus the euro.
Despite the overall challenging economic environment, the production volumes remained on the previous years’ level and a few new sites to serve customers in Sweden and Norway were opened during the year. The company continued a high investment pace to support future growth and to maintain the high technical standard of its bulk fleet and other technologies.
Defence
The revenue and order book within FORCIT Defence continued to grow strongly compared to the previous year. During 2023, focus areas included increasing production capacity and ensuring the availability of key raw materials.
Consulting
FORCIT Consulting’s revenues declined in 2023 due to worsening market conditions. The profitability, however, increased as a result of a targeted operational excellence program. The Consulting business area established new offices in Molde-Trondheim in Norway and in Lappeenranta in Finland. The acoustic modelling business continued to grow despite the overall worsening market conditions.
Research and development
The development of nitrogen-free explosive products, and a new green product line continued at the FORCIT Explosives business unit. Furthermore, the development of a new wireless ignition system continued, as well as the development of the O-Pitblast platform.
In FORCIT Defence, R&D work focused on the continued development of underwater systems and of the FORCIT Sentry Area Denial System. The first serial deliveries of the Sentry system took place in 2023.
In FORCIT Consulting, development work related to the platform for handling, monitoring and utilising measurement data continued.
Investments
The Group’s total investments during the financial period, including M&A, amounted to EUR 28.1 million (EUR 11.6 million), and if lease financing is included, they reached EUR 29.0 million (EUR 12.3 million). The parent company’s investments in its own operations totalled EUR 19.3 million (EUR 5.9 million). The Groups’ total investments including leasing financed investments was 13.5% of the annual revenue.
The most important investments were in expanding capacity in the Defence business, as well as increasing the service network within FORCIT Explosives. Significant investments were also made in the digitalisation of the charging and delivery processes. In FORCIT Consulting investments were mainly made in equipment and software for vibration and noise measurements.