BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The engine manufacturer Deutz can imagine entering new market segments such as the armaments sector and decentralized power supply. The company, which is listed in the small-cap index SDax, is considering supplying engines for wheeled tanks, armored personnel carriers and supply vehicles, wrote the newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" after an interview with CEO Sebastian Schulte. Battery storage systems for the stationary supply of military hospitals are also conceivable. "This is certainly an attractive field, it will bring about a turnaround," said the Deutz boss. This caused a jump in the price of Deutz shares on Monday.

In early trading, the shares jumped 16.07 percent to 5.75 euros. Investors are hoping that Deutz will be able to take a slice of the cake from the significantly increased defense investments. "A broader positioning could better protect Deutz from the ups and downs of its cyclical core business," commented one trader. The shares thus recovered significantly from their recent slide. However, they have still lost a good 9 percent in value since their high for the year at the beginning of April.

Deutz's plans in the area of emergency power supply are already more concrete. "The market for emergency power generators, which are still powered by diesel today, is growing," Schulte told the newspaper. "Curiously, this is even a consequence of the energy transition, because in countries like the USA, where the power grids are in a desolate state, there are sometimes power outages several times a month in certain regions."

Until now, Deutz has only supplied motors to manufacturers of such units, which are used in hospitals, cooling systems and data centers, for example. In future, the complete system is to come from Deutz. The two much larger US competitors Cummins and Caterpillar are already strongly represented in this business.

With a broader positioning, Deutz could possibly also become more resistant to the economic ups and downs. The weakening economy weighed on demand at the start of the year. The defense sector seems particularly attractive at the moment. Due to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Western countries have significantly increased their defense budgets - billions are flowing into tanks, air defense and ammunition.

As recently as mid-June, Estonia's Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur appealed to the NATO partners to spend a larger proportion of their national economic output on defence each year. "We believe that two percent is not enough. We have to go further," the Estonian said on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels./mis/niw/mne/mis