Financial key performance indicators

The Special Steel Division’s upward trend is reflected very clearly in the key figures. In addition to a slightly improved market environment, restructuring and cost programs at a number of sites as well as the continued expansion of the Value-Added Services business segment were crucial for this development. The division’s revenue rose by 5.7%, going from EUR 2,627.9 million in the previous year to EUR 2,774.4 million in the year under review. As the price level remained largely constant, the increase in delivery volumes was primarily responsible for this gain. In addition to this positive development with regard to volumes, it was especially cost savings that drove this considerable improvement. Against this backdrop, the operating result (EBITDA) rose by 13.5% from EUR 358.5 million to EUR 407.0 million. This brings the EBITDA margin in the business year 2014/15 up to 14.7%, substantially higher than the previous year’s figure of 13.6%. Due to value adjustments in the wake of restructuring measures at one of the main production sites in the fourth quarter of 2014/15, the increase in the absolute profit from operations (EBIT) figure was somewhat lower; percentage-wise, however, the figure changed analogously to EBITDA. In a year-over-year comparison, the previous year’s EBIT of EUR 224.4 million rose by 13.1% to EUR 253.7 million in the year under review. Therefore, in the same time period, the EBIT margin rose from 8.5% to 9.1%.

Quarterly development of the Special Steel Division

In millions of euros
Business year 2014/15

The direct comparison of the third and fourth quarters of 2014/15 also showed a clear increase; this was not solely due to the fact that there had been negative seasonal effects in the third quarter, but this was also a confirmation of the upward trend in the fourth quarter. Overall, revenue increased in the fourth quarter compared to the immediately preceding quarter by 10.3% going from EUR 678.5 million to EUR 748.5 million. EBITDA even rose by a third from EUR 95.8 million to EUR 127.8 million; as a result, the margin increased very markedly from 14.1% to 17.1%. With a gain of 24.8% from EUR 62.0 million (margin: 9.1%) to EUR 77.4 million (margin: 10.3%), the EBIT margin in the fourth quarter rose to a two-digit figure for the first time in quite a while despite the previously mentioned value adjustments in the final quarter in the wake of restructuring measures.

As of March 31, 2015, the Special Steel Division had 13,490 employees (FTE), an increase of 4.7% compared to the same reporting date in the past business year (12,885 FTE).