While the Chinese market for new installations remained challenging, order flow was boosted by several infrastructure projects, the company said.

Second-quarter net profit of 229 million Swiss francs (176.02 million pounds) beat the average forecast of 221 million francs in an analyst poll. Orders for July-September climbed 5.6 percent to 2.74 billion francs, over double the poll average of 2.68 billion francs.

For the third quarter, sales rose 7.5 percent to 2.59 billion francs, compared to the poll average of 2.52 billion.

The company reaffirmed its full-year outlook of revenue growth of 3 percent to 5 percent and net profit in the 840 million to 880 million francs range.

($1 = 0.9847 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Bartosz Dabrowski; Editing by Sunil Nair)