Chief executive Bernhard Schreier said: "We have now passed the bottom when it comes to orders and were able to improve slightly on the previous two quarters."
Schreier added that Heidelberg was not expecting to match last year's figures. This comes despite April's Ipex, where UK managing director George Clarke said the group had taken an order nearly every six minutes.
Sales in almost all the regions were "heavily affected" by continuing global uncertainty on investments. But business in Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe saw good growth, with the latter's sales rising nearly 14% to £48m.
The group's sales in the first quarter were just under £600m, compared to £700m a year ago. And orders slipped from £830m to £700m.
Heidelberg's post-press division was the one bright spot, with sales up 5% to £64m. Operating losses improved to just over £1m from nearly £4m.
The digital division's black-and-white and colour digital presses clocked up £32m of sales, against nearly £45m last year. Operating losses worsened from £10m to over £13m.
Heidelberg's sheetfed division felt the pinch as sales fell by £75m to £448m. Operating profit dipped by £14m to £44m.
Sales for the web systems division dropped marginally to £58m.
Story by Jez Abbott
