Financial key performance indicators*

In a year-over-year comparison, the Steel Division achieved revenue growth of 0.8%, going from EUR 2,812.7 million to EUR 2,835.1 million in the first three quarters of 2015/16. Considering the persistent recessive price trend and the loss of production volume during the repair of blast furnace 5, this is quite remarkable. One of the reasons for the increase in revenue was an improvement in the product mix in the heavy plate business segment. It fulfilled a major order for the energy segment, which was extremely demanding as far as quality is concerned, and this had a positive impact on revenue. The Division’s figures in the reporting categories from operating activities are substantially above those of the previous year. The main reasons for this revenue growth include a boost in gross income (earnings less raw materials costs) and increasing positive effects of the ongoing efficiency and cost optimization program. This has not only more than compensated the slightly lower production volumes (blast furnace repair) but also considerably improved the operating result (EBITDA) and profit from operations (EBIT). While EBITDA rose by 16.7% from EUR 308.2 million (margin: 11.0%) to EUR 359.8 million (margin: 12.7%), EBIT even showed a gain of one third, going from EUR 130.6 million to EUR 174.1 million. As a result, the EBIT margin improved from 4.6% to 6.1%.

In a direct comparison of the third quarter of 2015/16 with the immediately preceding quarter, however, the key indicators fell. Price reductions in the quarterly contracts and the decrease in production volume in the heavy plate business segment due to investments resulted in a drop in revenue in a quarter-to-quarter comparison of 9.2%, going from EUR 929.9 million to EUR 844.3 million. Comparing earnings, the picture is a similar one: in the third quarter of the business year, EBITDA fell by 10.4% compared with the second quarter, going from EUR 119.0 million to EUR 106.6 million, causing the EBITDA margin to decrease as well (from 12.8% to 12.6%). Concurrently, EBIT also declined by 28.6% from EUR 58.0 million (margin: 6.2%) to EUR 41.4 million (margin: 4.9%). Nevertheless, despite a far more difficult market environment, this was still 16.6% higher than EBIT in the third quarter of the business year 2014/15 (EUR 35.5 million and a margin of 3.9%).

At 10,858 as of the end of the first three quarters of 2015/16, the number of employees (FTE) in the Steel Division was 2.6% below the previous year’s figure (11,148) and 2.2% below the figure as of the end of the past business year (11,103).