Metal Forming Division

Market environment and business development

The Metal Forming Division succeeded in maintaining the previous year’s positive trend during the first quarter of 2017/18. Particularly the Automotive Components segment benefitted from the excellent unchanging demand in Europe. This development is underscored by the increase yet again in the first six months of 2017 in European auto sales compared with the previous year. While the sales volumes of the major German automobile manufacturers in the USA have stagnated at a high level in the calendar year 2017 to date, they continued to grow in China. The market environment of the Tubes & Sections segment was satisfactory in the first quarter of 2017/18, even though the segment’s performance fell slightly short of the immediately preceding quarter. In regional terms, however, the mood in Europe was better than in the 2016 calendar year. Particularly the commercial vehicles industry and the agricultural machine industry began to recover. In the USA, by contrast, low investment activity characterized the economy for long periods—not least in the construction industry— with the effect that demand from the construction machinery industry was restrained. The recovery in Brazil was but gradual, because the country’s economy has still been unable to shake the massive recession of the past years.

The performance of the Precision Strip segment in the first quarter of 2017/18 was excellent. The combination of an outstanding market position with high quality and a very solid market environment was key to the impressive performance; particularly the sawmill industry in both Europe and China benefitted from continued high demand levels. Project activity in the Warehouse & Rack Solutions segment also remained at an attractive level at the start of the business year 2017/18. Thanks to excellent order levels, capacity utilization in this segment is already secure beyond the close of the current business year.

Financial key performance indicators

Year over year, the Metal Forming Division succeeded in lifting its revenue by 9.2% from EUR 615.8 million in the first quarter of 2016/17 to currently EUR 672.7 million, primarily by successfully passing on higher pre-material costs and due to positive market conditions in the Precision Strip segment. The increases in both EBITDA and EBIT are in the same ballpark. The operating result (EBITDA) rose by 10.8% from EUR 80.0 million to EUR 88.6 million, while the profit from operations (EBIT) rose by 11.1% from EUR 55.2 million to EUR 61.3 million. Here, too, the increase was due primarily to the Precision Strip segment, whereas the earnings in the other segments were more or less the same as in the previous year. Given the higher revenue, the margin increases (EBITDA margin: +0.2 percentage point to 13.2%, and EBIT margin: +0.1 percentage point to 9.1%) were modest in a 12-month comparison.

As of June 30, 2017, the Metal Forming Division had 11,300 employees (FTE) and thus 7.8% more than at the June 30, 2016, reporting date (10,481 employees), largely due to the expansion of the automotive activities at international sites as well as the acquisition of Summo Corp., Canada, in the previous year.