While revenue declined slightly year-over-year due to lower raw materials prices and resulting decreased sales prices, results were at the same outstanding level as in the first quarter of the previous business year.
In the first quarter of the business year 2013/14, the division’s revenue was at EUR 766.9 million, merely 4.8% below the record figure of the first quarter of the previous business year (EUR 805.6 million). At EUR 112.3 million, the operating result (EBITDA) rose by 1.3% in comparison to the first quarter of the business year 2012/13 (EUR 110.9 million), and the EBITDA margin went up as a result from 13.8% to 14.6%. At EUR 83.2 million, profit from operations (EBIT) matched almost precisely the figure in the comparable quarter of the previous business year (EUR 83.3 million). EBIT margin was at 10.8%, 0.5% higher than that of the first quarter of 2012/13.
As of the reporting date of June 30, 2013, the Metal Engineering Division had 11,558 employees (FTE), an increase of 2.4% compared to the same reporting date in the previous year (11,291).