In the first nine months of the current business year, the Metal Engineering Division was again the voestalpine Group’s most profitable division by far. The division’s revenue, however, suffered a slight loss as a result of the closure of the standard rail production at the Duisburg/Germany site in the fourth calendar quarter of 2013. Revenue declined by 2.9% from EUR 2,239.2 million in the first three quarters of 2012/13 to EUR 2,174.9 million in the current business year. However, as far as earnings are concerned, the division again recorded a very appreciable gain on top of what was already a very good level. The Wire business segment made a substantial contribution to this development as it considerably increased both delivery volumes and prices compared to the previous year. The operating result (EBITDA) in the first three quarters of 2013/14 came to EUR 333.3 million, 7.9% above last year’s figure of EUR 309.0 million. This corresponds to an EBITDA margin of 15.3% (previous year: 13.8%). EBIT rose by just over 10% from EUR 224.1 million to EUR 245.5 million, with the EBIT margin in the first nine months of 2013/14 at 11.3% (previous year: 10.0%).
A direct comparison of the second and third quarters of 2013/14 shows a decline in revenue of 7.0% from EUR 729.6 million to EUR 678.4 million, due on one hand to the aforementioned closure of the Duisburg site and, on the other, to seasonal effects. In the same period, the EBITDA margin improved from 15.5% to 15.9% despite the fact that EBITDA fell by 4.6% from EUR 113.1 million to EUR 107.9 million. EBIT decreased by 6.3% from the second to the third quarter of the business year 2013/14, going from EUR 83.8 million to EUR 78.5 million, with the EBIT margin remaining almost the same at 11.6% (previous quarter: 11.5%).
As of December 31, 2013, the Metal Engineering Division had 11,760 employees (FTE), thus increasing its headcount by 5.6% compared to the same date in 2012 (11,137 FTE) and by 3.4% compared to the end of the previous business year (11,374 FTE).