Thyssenkrupp posts record orders on elevators, components

ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) - German engineering and steel group Thyssenkrupp posted its highest order intake in five years on Thursday, boosted by record demand for its elevators and components for the car and construction sectors.

Order intake rose 18 percent to 44.29 billion euros ($52.34 billion) in the group's 2016/17 financial year. Adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) reached 1.91 billion euros, beating the 1.73 billion forecast in a Reuters poll.

"We achieved our best order intake since the start of the Strategic Way Forward. We exceeded our growth and earnings targets," Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger said in a statement.

Hiesinger aims to transform Thyssenkrupp into a technology group and is slowly cutting ties to its traditional steelmaking business, whose roots go back more than 200 years, after a recent merger deal with Tata Steel.

Instead, the group is banking on its elevators unit, its most profitable, as well as demand for its parts from the car sector, its single biggest customer group that accounts for about a quarter of group sales.

Thyssenkrupp, which recommended an unchanged dividend of 0.15 euros per share for the 2016/17 financial year, said adjusted EBIT would reach 1.8-2.0 billion euros in the current year. Analysts, on average, expect 2.03 billion euros.

($1 = 0.8462 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Douglas Busvine)