At ? 100.0 million, sales revenues for the second quarter of 2013 were exactly the same as for the first quarter. Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, this represents a decline of 9.4 percent. Year to date, sales revenues in the first six months are therefore 17.5 percent down on the previous year?s level.
?This development is in line with our expectations and the forecast given in the Annual Shareholders Meeting,? comments Manfred Bender, CEO of Pfeiffer Vacuum. Bender continues, ?We assume that demand from the semiconductor industry will increase in the second half-year. First signs of this were already noticeable in Asia in the second quarter. If this happens, it means we will have come through the period of weakness, which we have been experiencing in the semiconductor industry since mid 2011, in good shape. We will have shown that we are profitable even during periods of lower sales.
Orders received in the second quarter amounted to ? 101.5 million and, as in the first quarter, exceeded sales revenues. The book-to-bill-ratio, which is the ratio of orders to sales, totaled 1.03 as at June 30, 2013.
The operating profit of ? 21.3 million in the first six months of 2013 was well below the figure for the previous year (? 36.5 million). This is solely due to the reduced sales volume and to currency effects. The operating profit in the second quarter alone (? 10.2 million) was burdened with exchange losses of ? 1.2 million. The net income in the first six months (? 14.4 million) was ? 9.9 million down on the previous year?s level (? 24.3 million) for the reasons stated.
A year-on-year comparison of the various market segments reveals that sales revenues of ? 56.0 million in Industry applications (previous year: ? 55.3 million), ? 27.1 million in Research & Development (previous year: ? 26.5 million), and ? 24.9 million in the Coating segment (previous year: ? 24.0 million) were slightly up on the previous year. Sales revenues of ? 38.0 million in the Analytical market (previous year: ? 42.1 million) and ? 53.9 million in the Semiconductor market (previous year: ? 94.4 million) were below last year?s levels.
