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 successfully carried the previous business year’s momentum over into the first quarter of the business year 2022/23. The automotive industry was the only sector that still had to contend with altogether restrained component order call-ups in tandem with high volatility.

In Europe, the automotive production units of the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) continued to struggle with supply chain bottle-necks, particularly in relation to semiconductors and wire harnesses. Manufacturing capacity utilization thus was moderate, even though demand in the market was solid. Accordingly, the conditions facing the division’s Automotive Components business segment in Europe were just as challenging. Demand from key customers engaged in automotive production at voestalpine’s facilities beyond Europe was better, relatively speaking. Yet component orders from OEMs trended downward year over year, even in the United States. Developments in China were largely positive. This was so despite a comprehensive lockdown in the Chinese city of Shenyang, which also affected one of voestalpine’s facilities at the start of the current business year.

During the first quarter of 2022/23, the Tubes & Sections business segment benefited from dynamic market conditions over longer periods of time. In particular, this applies to demand from the solar industry, the commercial vehicle sector as well as from the storage technology sector. Orders from the automotive supplier sector as well as the agricultural and construction machinery industry were more limited owing to the lack of semiconductors in the value chains. Toward the end of the reporting period, orders from the construction industry declined a bit due to project postponements. From a regional perspective, the segment’s performance in the business year’s first quarter was satisfactory—not only in its European core markets but also in both South and North America.

The Precision Strip business segment seamlessly carried its excellent performance from the previous business year over into the current business year. In Europe, demand during the first quarter of 2022/23 was extremely robust. Now and then, container availability shortages limited exports. Favorable conditions prevailed in the U.S. market, especially in the band saw steel product segment. The economic environment in China was positive also: Demand continued on an upward trend despite regional COVID-19 lockdowns.

The strong performance of the Warehouse & Rack Solutions business segment continued unabated in the first business quarter. More recently, however, orders for new projects in Europe started to dry up a bit whereas demand in the North American market remained high.

Development of the key figures

As regards both revenue and earnings, the Metal Forming Division followed a positive trajectory year over year. In the first quarter of 2022/23, revenue rose by 25.8% to EUR 1,038.5 million (Q1 2021/22: EUR 825.5 million). This was chiefly due to the division’s success in distributing significant increases in the cost of pre-materials and the associated expansion of the business volume across all four of its business segments. As far as its operating performance is concerned, there was a slight improvement in the earnings of both the Automotive Components and the Precision Strip business segment year over year, whereas both Tubes & Sections and Warehouse & Rack Solutions fell slightly short of their very good performance in the previous business year. On the whole, the division succeeded in raising EBITDA in the first quarter of 2022/23 by 9.1% to EUR 114.0 million with a margin of 11.0% (Q1 2021/22: EUR 104.5 million, margin of 12.7%). EBIT followed a similar track, rising in the reporting period by 14.6% to EUR 77.9 million with a margin of 7.5% (Q1 2021/22: EUR 68.0 million, margin of 8.2%).

As of June 30, 2022, the number of employees (FTE) in the Metal Forming Division (11,750) was 1.0% higher than in the previous business year (11,629).