The Metal Engineering Division is the only division in the voestalpine Group that increased its revenue in the first half of 2012/13 compared to the previous year. The increase by 2.8% from EUR 1,504.4 million to EUR 1,545.9 million is due primarily to the excellent performance of premium rails, which posted record sales figures; this increase is all the more remarkable as the input costs were significantly reduced during this period. As far as earnings are concerned, however, the division suffered declines as a result of the price level that is trending downward overall.
EBITDA fell by 9.8% from EUR 228.9 million in the first two quarters of the business year 2011/12 to EUR 206.4 million in the reporting period. The EBITDA margin remained at 13.4%, still an excellent level although it could not match the previous year’s EBITDA margin, which was 15.2%.
EBIT developed similarly at EUR 151.0 million for the first half of the business year, 12.2% below the previous year’s figure of EUR 171.9 million, thus bringing the EBIT margin down from 11.4% in the previous year to 9.8% in the reporting period.
Comparing the quarter to the immediately preceding one, both revenue and earnings declined, primarily due to seasonal effects. Except for the Turnout Technology segment, the individual segments were not able to match the previous quarter’s exceptional figures, with revenue dropping by 8.1% from EUR 805.6 million in the first quarter of 2012/13 to EUR 740.3 million in the quarter under review. The somewhat lower delivery volumes for rails, wire, and seamless tubes compared to the immediately preceding quarter—to some degree due to seasonal fluctuations—were the main reason why EBITDA declined from EUR 111.4 million to EUR 95.0 million, a drop of 14.7%. Therefore, at 12.8%, the EBITDA margin was slightly lower than the immediately preceding quarter’s figure of 13.8%.
In a comparison with the immediately preceding quarter, EBIT fell by 19.8% from EUR 83.8 million in the first quarter to EUR 67.2 million in the second quarter of the current business year. This resulted in a decrease of the EBIT margin from 10.4% in the first quarter of the business year to 9.1% in the second quarter.
As of the end of September, 11,426 employees (full-time equivalent) were working in the Metal Engineering Division. This is an increase of 1.2% compared to the previous year’s reporting date (11,289 employees), and 0.7% more than at the beginning of the business year (11,344 employees).