The subsidiaries of SMS group were able to boost orders. Order intake by manufacturing technology company Elexis exceeded the previous year’s figure (€ 184 million) by € 26 million and totaled € 210 million. Induction technology specialist Elotherm generated € 73 million (2016: € 66 million).
SMS group recorded a net result of € 23 million, slightly higher than the previous year’s figure (€ 14 million). Included in this total are accruals for restructuring to the amount of € 73 million.
In business year 2017, SMS group had an average of 14,305 employees. This was an increase of 402 employees, due in particular to the expansion of service activities abroad. In order to adjust to the lower global market volume in metallurgical plant construction, SMS is reducing equipment and materials costs. By 2020, the company will scale back 500 of the current 4,150 jobs in Germany, with 300 jobs affected in 2018. This necessary personnel adjustment is being carried out in a socially responsible manner, largely avoiding redundancies and concentrating instead on semi-retirement arrangements and individual contractual solutions.
The company continues its strategy of growth in services. The medium-term goal is to expand the service volume to around one third of total business volume. Apart from the classic spare parts business, this includes modernization packages designed to boost the performance of customers’ plants. In line with its partnership approach, SMS is increasingly offering consultancy and providing extensive maintenance and repair services for its customers.
Possibly the most important area of development is enabling customers to meet their challenges with the performance-boosting “learning factory” strategy. In this area, SMS group already supplies its customers with extensive service packages.
For the customer Big River Steel in the US, SMS successfully commissioned an entire plant complex in the form of a “Learning Steel Mill” in 2017. Developed jointly with the customer, the concept fulfilled all expectations. As a result, SMS recently received a confirmation for an expansion stage.
The company is also investing more in the production and processing of new high-tech materials and efficient, intelligent green technologies. To increase growth in adjacent markets and industries, all activities come together in the company-wide New Horizon strategy program. The first customer projects have already been successfully completed.
For example, SMS group is currently constructing the world’s first “UrbanGold” plant. With this  plant, it is possible to cost-effectively recycle valuable and high-purity metals from electronic scrap such as PCBs. The recovered materials include copper, nickel, gold, silver and platinum.
SMS group has built and commissioned a industrial scale pilot plant for producing high-purity metal powder and new materials used in additive manufacturing – or 3D printing with laser technologies. The metal powder consists of microscopic, homogenous particles that form the basic materials for customized or novel-design products. The company is also building a demo center for the entire additive manufacturing process chain – from metal powder to the high-quality finished product.
Burkhard Dahmen: “Our customers expect precision results and creative solutions to highly complex problems. And we are using those same strengths to further develop SMS group itself. With New Horizon and our digitalization offensive, we have launched a sophisticated growth program that will sustainably strengthen our company’s leading position.”
_{(Source: SMS group)}