The development of the Metal Engineering Division in the first quarter of the current business year continued overall at the same high level, with all of the business segments in the highly diversified division performing equally well.
The Rail Technology business segment continued to enjoy a high level of demand in the past quarter. As a result, its capacity at all of its production sites was fully utilized, a development that—from today’s vantage point—is expected to continue at least until the end of the calendar year. Viewed regionally, the product portfolio is currently changing to provide a better fit for the European market, a trend that can more than compensate the slightly reduced demand on individual international markets.
The Turnout Systems business segment also experienced unchanged strong demand in all regions worldwide, with particularly strong momentum coming from North America, the MENA region, and Southeast Asia. However, the level of incoming orders from Europe and Australia also rose. After a period of several years when investments were cautious in many European countries due to tense budget situations after the worldwide economic crisis, investment in maintenance of existing rail networks has been increasing. Furthermore, the accelerated development of the signal technology segment has resulted in growing economies of scale.
The Wire Technology business segment is continuing to perform very well, with the development being driven by high demand for special drawn wire by the European automotive industry.
The Seamless Tube business segment, which has demonstrated strong performance for many quarters, continued this trend in the first quarter of the business year, building on an excellent and stable level of demand from all the most important oil- and natural gas-producing regions for OCTG tubes (oil country tubular goods) used in oil and natural gas exploration.
Performance in the Welding Consumables business segment was somewhat more moderate than in the other business segments, but it is still satisfactory. The main reason for this development has been the fact that the weak market in Europe, which has been an ongoing trend in recent quarters, remained at that level in the first quarter of the business year 2014/15. However, performance was solid overall in North America, the MENA region, China, and Southeast Asia.