Similarly to the Steel and the Special Steel Divisions, the Metal Engineering Division also experienced declining revenues in the first six months of 2013/14 compared to the same period of the previous year. However, as opposed to the aforementioned divisions, the Metal Engineering Division succeeded in making significant gains in its operating result, a positive development, as its figures were already at a high level. Revenue fell slightly by 3.2% from EUR 1,545.9 million in the first half of 2012/13 to EUR 1,496.5 million in the first half of 2013/14. The reason lies in the delivery volume of standard rails that was substantially reduced as planned by the Duisburg site, which will be closed toward the end of the 2013 calendar year on one hand and, on the other, in the overall somewhat lower prices for the products manufactured by the Metal Engineering Division. As far as earnings are concerned, the lower sales prices were more than compensated by increased efficiency. Thus EBITDA went up by 9.7% from EUR 205.5 million to EUR 225.4 million, which corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 15.1% (previous year: 13.3%). EBIT figures paralleled EBITDA; the figure for the first six months was EUR 167.0 million, which is 11.3% higher than the previous year’s figure of EUR 150.1 million, with the EBIT margin rising analogously from 9.7% to 11.2%.
In the comparison of the last quarter to the immediately preceding one as well, the division’s stable development at an excellent level is clear. While revenue dropped by 4.9% from EUR 766.9 million in the first quarter of 2013/14 to EUR 729.6 million in the second quarter of 2013/14 as a result of the aforementioned reasons, earnings performed strongly, thus seamlessly continuing their performance in the immediately preceding quarter. The operating result (EBITDA) even rose slightly by 0.7% from EUR 112.3 million to EUR 113.1 million, and EBIT also experienced a slight gain of 0.8%, going from EUR 83.2 million to EUR 83.8 million. Due to the lower revenue basis, both the EBITDA margin and the EBIT margin rose noticeably in the second quarter of 2013/14 compared to the immediately preceding quarter, with the former going from 14.6% to 15.5% and the latter rising from 10.8% to 11.5%.
As of September 30, 2013, the Metal Engineering Division had 11,834 employees (FTE), an increase of 3.6% compared to the same reporting date in the past business year and a gain of 4.0% compared to the end of the previous business year (11,374 FTE).