Despite higher delivery volumes, in the first nine months of the business year 2012/13, the Steel Division’s revenue decreased compared to the first three quarters of the previous year by 3.5% from EUR 3,011.6 million to EUR 2,906.0 million. The primary reason for the decline was the fact that—due to the drop in raw materials costs that was, in some cases, significant—the level of prices fell, especially in the third calendar quarter of 2012. At EUR 340.2 million, the operating result (EBITDA) is identical as in the previous year (EUR 339.1 million), whereby the individual quarters show a more stable earnings level than in the previous year, a result of an even faster adjustment of internal processes to changed market conditions. In a market environment that was difficult overall, the Steel Division was able to raise the EBITDA margin from 11.3% to 11.7%. Even though the profit from operations (EBIT) in the first three quarters of the current business year dropped slightly compared to the previous year, going from EUR 171.0 million to EUR 167.4 million, the EBIT margin went up slightly from 5.7% to 5.8%.
In a comparison with the immediately preceding quarter, revenue fell from EUR 979.8 million in the second quarter of 2012/13 to EUR 926.4 million in the third quarter of 2012/13, i.e., by 5.5%. Diminished delivery volumes due to seasonal fluctuations and a regressive level of prices in the quarterly contracts, together with a delayed effect of lower raw materials costs, resulted in a drop in EBITDA in the third quarter by 22.2% from EUR 129.6 million to EUR 100.8 million. At EUR 42.5 million, profit from operations (EBIT) was 41.5% lower than in the previous quarter (EUR 72.7 million) due primarily to seasonal effects. As a result, the EBIT margin for the third quarter was 4.6%, compared to 7.4% in the preceding quarter.
As of December 31, 2012, the Steel Division had 10,414 employees (FTE), almost precisely the same figure as in the previous year (10,408 employees).