Heidelbergs order intake rose 35% in the quarter to 30 September, compared to the quarter to 30 June, but fell 12% for the first six months of this financial year compared to the same period last year.

Sales rose 10.2% quarter-on-quarter to 550m (EUR791m), but fell by more than a fifth to 1.04bn in the first half of the year. Adjusted for currency and consolidation effects, the decrease was 15%.

Heidelberg chief executive Bernhard Schreier said the global reluctance to invest had not changed significantly during the first half of the year. The current economic climate did not allow concrete sales and profit forecasts for the groups next fiscal year, he added.

Heidelberg cut its staff costs by 7% quarter-on-quarter, with 400 jobs going during the second quarter.

Its operating loss almost halved quarter-on-quarter to 23.6m, although for the first half of last year it made an operating profit of 25m.

Heidelberg will continue with short-time working in its sheetfed division up to and including May 2004, and it said it was in negotiations about improving cost structures in its Digital and Web divisions.

However, it made no reference to its talks with Goss over the future of the Web division.

MAN Roland also said orders were showing signs of improvement. Although they fell 4% in the first nine months of the year, the group reported a 5% increase in the third quarter compared to the same period last year.

There are now signs that demand could be bottoming out in the sheetfed sector, it said, although the quality of returns on orders is still unsatisfactory.

Sales fell 20% to 695m for the first nine months, and by 19% to 230m in the third quarter.

MAN Roland also reported a 40m loss before tax for the first nine months, compared to a 700,000 profit in the same period last year.

It said inadequate capacity utilisation in the sheetfed sector had contributed to the loss.

Sheeted sales fell 9% below the already low level of last year, while its web division suffered a 14% fall in new orders and a 32% slump in sales for the year so far.

The groups headcount also fell 7% to 9,700.

MAN Roland is still expected to report a high loss for the full year.