North America 

Good order intake growth continued in the new equipment business in North America

In North America, the new equipment and modernization markets continued to be strong. The market for hotel and leisure building solutions was especially active, whereas growth in the U.S. residential segment slowed down towards the end of the year. The development efforts initiated by KONE in 2005 showed concrete results by boosting sales of new equipment.

The success of the KONE extended machine-room-less (MRL) elevators and the encouraging escalator demand in the public transportation segment resulted in good order intake growth. The product offering for the North American machineroom-less market has been systematically expanded, and KONE’s MRL solutions now cover most hydraulic elevator segments.

The modernization business advanced well as a result of the additional solutions developed and released. In particular, the public transportation and high-rise building sectors showed increasing interest in KONE’s new modernization solutions.