Similarly to the Steel Division, the Special Steel Division also experienced declining revenues in the first nine months of 2012/13 compared to the same period of the previous year. Compared to the Steel Division, however, prices actually rose somewhat due to a change in the product mix but were unable to fully compensate the 10% decrease in delivery volumes. Revenue fell by 4.7% from EUR 2,165.6 million to EUR 2,064.8 million, with the operating result (EBITDA) dropping by 11.5% compared to the previous year’s figure. While it was still at EUR 311.1 million (EBITDA margin 14.4%) in the first three quarters of 2011/12, in the period under review it was at EUR 275.2 million (EBITDA margin 13.3%). Accordingly, profit from operations (EBIT) showed a similar trend, declining by 15.2% from EUR 196.8 million to EUR 166.8 million. This corresponds to an EBIT margin of 8.1% (previous year: 9.1%).
Compared to the immediately preceding quarter, the picture is similar. While the Special Steel Division was able to raise prices slightly in the last quarter, production and delivery volumes were around 10% below the figure in the immediately preceding quarter, in part due to seasonal fluctuations. Thus, revenue fell by 6.4% from EUR 686.4 million to EUR 642.7 million. The decline of the operating result was somewhat more substantial. In the third quarter, the division reported an operating result (EBITDA) of EUR 79.7 million; this corresponds to a drop of 12.0% compared to the figure in the immediately preceding quarter (EUR 90.6 million). This results in an EBITDA margin of 12.4% compared to 13.2% in the immediately preceding quarter. In the third quarter of 2012/13, profit from operations (EBIT) was EUR 43.8 million, a decrease of 19.2% compared to the immediately preceding quarter (EUR 54.2 million), with the EBIT margin going down from 7.9% to 6.8%.
As of December 31, 2012, the Special Steel Division had 12,144 employees (FTE); in comparison to the figure on the reporting date in the previous year (12,060 employees), this corresponds to a slight increase of 0.7%.