Development of the key figures

Compared to the business year 2010/11, the Steel Division experienced an increase in revenue, however, at the same time, the operating result declined markedly. Despite the scheduled reconstruction shutdown of the hot wide strip mill in the summer of 2011 and subdued demand in the following fall, revenue in the business year 2011/12 rose by 7.6% from EUR 3,839.3 million to EUR 4,130.3 million.

Contrary to this positive development, however, was a drastic decline of EBIT by 39.0%, going from EUR 371.5 million to EUR 226.5 million, which resulted from lower capacity utilization and reduced delivery volumes compared to the previous year as well as a very depressed price trend in the second half of the business year. Thus, the EBIT margin sank in the business year 2011/12 from 9.7% to 5.5%.

In a comparison of the quarterly figures during the business year, however, the Steel Division showed a revenue boost in the fourth quarter of 2011/12 with a significant improvement of the operating result. Compared to the immediately preceding quarter, revenue rose by 12.4% from EUR 995.2 million to EUR 1,118.7 million; although the price level in the short-term business segment fell, this was more than compensated by considerable increases in volume. As far as earnings are concerned, in the fourth quarter of 2011/12, the Steel Division saw a sharp increase in EBIT from EUR 9.9 million to EUR 55.5 million, thus putting it in a far better position than in the immediately preceding quarter; the EBIT margin went up from 1.0% in the third quarter to 5.0% in the fourth quarter of 2011/12. This positive development was made possible primarily by the return to full capacity utilization at the beginning of this period.

As of March 31, 2012, the Steel Division had 10,702 employees (full-time equivalents¹). Compared to the previous year (10,626), this corresponds to a slight increase in staff by 0.7%.