Metal Forming Division

This report is a translation of the original report in German, which is solely valid.

Market environment and business development

The Metal Forming Division benefited from a largely robust economic environment in the first quarter of the business year 2021/22. Yet Automotive Components—the division’s largest business segment—was confronted with volatile order call-ups due to semiconductor supply chain difficulties among the original equipment manu­facturers (OEMs).

The OEMs’ extremely short-term ordering environment thus impacted the performance of Automotive Components during the reporting period. In turn, this directly affected the production plans of voestalpine’s automotive component plants. The semiconductor bottlenecks already hit Europe’s auto manufacturers at the start of calendar year 2021 and intensified during the company’s first business quarter. In the United States and China, by contrast, semiconductor supply issues caused but few production shutdowns. Against this backdrop, the passenger car production and licensing volume in Europe was much more constrained than regions overseas.

Capacity utilization at the production units of the Tubes & Sections business segment was highly satisfactory during the first quarter of the business year 2021/22. This positive trend was driven mainly by the construction industry, the agricultural machine industry, and the commercial vehicle industry as well as storage technology. Regionally speaking, the economic climate in the segment’s core regions—Europe as well as North and South America—was dynamic throughout. All delivery contracts were carried out as agreed despite the bottlenecks in pre-materials that affected steel the most.

The Precision Strip business segment saw advantageous conditions in its most important product groups throughout the first quarter of the business year 2021/22. In the United States, the strong demand for band saw steel led to record orders in this segment. In China, too, the market environment continued to improve at the beginning of the current business year.

As before, the momentum in the Warehouse & Rack Solutions business segment was robust. The worldwide lockdowns related to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic further intensified the trend toward online commerce. As a result, orders in the first business quarter reached record levels, with the North American market developing at a particularly pleasing rate..

Development of the key figures

Group-wide, the Metal Forming Division delivered the most dramatic year-over-year improvement in key performance indicators (KPIs). For one, the fallout from the COVID-19 lockdowns in the previous year affected this division more than others owing to its strong focus on the automotive industry. For another, its performance during the reporting period was stunningly dynamic. As a result, the division’s revenue for Q1 2021/22 jumped by 81.0% to EUR 825.5 million (Q1 2020/21: EUR 456.0 million) thanks to significant growth in all four of its business segments. Its earnings performance reflects this development as well. EBITDA for Q1 2021/22 rose to EUR 104.5 million (Q1 2020/21: EUR 14.6 million), and the EBITDA margin jumped from 3.2% to 12.7% year over year. While EBIT for the same period of the previous year was still negative at EUR –20.7 million (margin of –4.5%), the division succeeded in the reporting period to raise it to EUR 68.0 million with a margin of 8.2%.