Metal Forming Division

MARKET ENVIRONMENT AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

The individual business segments of the Metal Forming Division performed very unevenly in the first nine months of the 2024/25 reporting year. While Automotive Components faced major challenges, Tubes & Sections was largely stable in a difficult environment. Warehouse & Rack Solutions continued the positive trend of previous years.

The Automotive Components business segment has been characterized by low demand in Europe since the beginning of the 2024/25 business year. Following the profit warnings issued by several well-known European car manufacturers in summer 2024, market momentum deteriorated continuously in the third quarter of the 2024/25 business year. As a result, the European sites experienced significant underutilization. The division’s management responded quickly and proactively to the changing conditions and initiated a comprehensive reorganization programme for the European and, in particular, German sites of the business segment. In addition to the announced closure of a plant, a number of branches are being combined into a production network in order to leverage synergies and cost potential on the one hand, and to concentrate further development on the technology side on the other.

Capacity utilization figures at the international Automotive Components plants in China and the USA were good at the beginning of the business year but declined as the reporting period progressed. The Chinese Automotive Components sites in particular saw a decline in customer call-offs after the Northern summer.

The Tubes & Sections business segment performed satisfactorily overall in the first nine months of the 2024/25 reporting year due to its global positioning. Here, too, the European locations faced low demand, which initially resulted primarily from the weak construction industry in continental Europe, but later spread to other markets, such as agricultural machinery and trucks. In North America, almost all industry segments performed positively. In Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA, for example, production capacity for the manufacture of high-quality side members for trucks is being expanded following the conclusion of long-term contracts with well-known customers. In South America, the market for photovoltaic systems lost momentum, but this was offset by good demand in the other market segments. In China, the 2024/25 business year has been very good to date, with the Chinese automotive industry in particular showing strong demand for precision tube components.

In the current reporting year, demand for products from the Precision Strip business segment was subdued in Europe and North America. The relatively high inventory levels on the customer side hardly improved as the business year progressed. In China, the first three quarters were positive.

The positive development in the Warehouse & Rack Solutions business segment continued during the reporting period. The project landscape for automated warehouses in North America and Europe was very satisfactory thanks to voestalpine’s innovative customer solutions. The most recent European acquisition, Torri S.R.L., developed according to plan. In North America, further expansion is planned through the expansion of production and sales capacities in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE KEY FIGURES

In terms of revenue, the Metal Forming Division recorded a decrease of 6.0% from EUR 2,490.4 million in Q 1 – Q 3 2023/24 to EUR 2,341.2 million in Q 1 – Q 3 2024/25. The Tubes & Sections, Automotive Components and Precision Strip business segments recorded declines in volume. By contrast, the Warehouse & Rack Solutions business segment was able to increase its revenue year-on-year. The Metal Forming Division also saw a decline in its operating result (EBITDA). EBITDA was negatively impacted by one-off effects from the reorganization of the Automotive Components business segment in the third quarter of the current business year in the amount of around EUR 30 million (see also ad hoc disclosure dated 14 October 2024). A breakdown by business segment shows a similar picture to that for revenue: lower year-on-year EBITDA in Tubes & Sections, Automotive Components and Precision Strip was cushioned by an increase in Warehouse & Rack Solutions. Overall, EBITDA fell by 42.1% year-on-year from EUR 203.8 million (margin 8.2) to EUR 118.1 million (margin 5.0%). During the same period, the operating result (EBIT) fell by 92.1% from EUR 95.4 million (margin 3.8%) to EUR 7.5 million (margin 0.3%).

A direct quarter-on-quarter comparison of the second and third quarters of 2024/25 shows a decrease in the Metal Forming Division’s revenue of 7.7% from EUR 782.0 million to EUR 722.0 million. While the Precision Strip and Warehouse & Rack Solutions business segments showed a stable revenue development, it declined in Tubes & Sections and Automotive Components. The division reported a declining EBITDA of EUR 0.6 million (margin 0.1%) in the third quarter due to the one-off effects of around EUR 30 million from the reorganization of the Automotive Components segment. In the second quarter, however, EBITDA amounted to EUR 50.5 million with a margin of 6.5%. With the exception of Warehouse & Rack Solutions, the operating result in the other business segments was below the level of the second quarter in a direct quarter-on-quarter comparison. EBIT was negative in the third quarter at EUR –38.3 million (margin –5.3%), after the division achieved EUR 14.9 million and a margin of 1.9% in the immediately preceding quarter.

The number of employees (FTE) in the Metal Forming Division was 10,795 as of December 31, 2024, a decrease of 4.6% compared to December 31, 2023 (11,315).