Continuing operations (excluding tantalum capacitors):
- New orders and sales up again sequentially and year on year
- Sales: EUR 330 million, up 15 percent year on year, up 2 percent sequentially
- EBIT: plus EUR 15 million (Q3 2005: plus EUR 4 million; Q2 2006: plus EUR 12 million)
New orders and sales (continuing operations)
Business development remained positive in all regions and in nearly all industries served in the third quarter of fiscal 2006 (April 1 – June 30, 2006). As a whole, new orders and sales again increased both sequentially and year on year. For the third consecutive quarter, the book-to-bill ratio was above one at 1.08 in the period under review.
Comparison with Q2 2006
New orders and sales at the EPCOS Group (EUR million)
| Q2 2006 | ± in % | Q3 2006 |
| New orders | 348 | + 2 | 356 |
| Sales | 324 | + 2 | 330 |
New orders rose by 2 percent to EUR 356 million in Q3 2006, driven mainly by strong growth of more than 30 percent in business with products for automotive electronics applications. Substantial orders for the piezo actuators used in diesel injection systems played a key part in this growth. Customers generally also placed longer-term orders. Demand from the telecommunications industry increased by 5 percent.
These gains more than offset both the – seasonal – decline in orders from consumer electronics customers and the slight dip in orders from industrial electronics customers after a relatively strong previous quarter. They also compensated for decreased demand from distributors, which fell back to the level of Q1 after rising sharply in Q2. The decline in Q3 came because distributors have now filled their stocks with RoHS-compatible components. This development was driven by the EU Directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), which took effect on July 1, 2006. The directive prohibits the use of certain substances (such as lead, mercury and cadmium) in mobile phones and consumer electronics devices, for example. In some cases, this required technical changes to components – to adapt them to lead-free soldering processes, for instance.
Regionally, the bulk of the increase in new orders came from Germany. The order intake from the rest of Europe, Asia and the NAFTA region remained more or less stable.
Business in almost all regions and with almost all industries served contributed to the 2 percent sequential increase in sales to EUR 330 million. The only exceptions were the consumer electronics industry and the NAFTA region. In the latter region, sales dropped primarily because of an unfavorable development of the dollar/euro exchange rate.
Sales by business segment (EUR million)
| Q2 2006 | ± in % | Q3 2006 |
| Capacitors and Inductors | 121 | + 2 | 124 |
| Ceramic Components | 103 | + 3 | 106 |
| SAW Components | 100 | + 1 | 100 |
Sequentially, Capacitors and Inductors and the Ceramic Components segments both posted higher sales. The Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Components segment ended Q3 slightly ahead of the positive figure for the previous quarter, despite a seasonal drop in business with filters for multimedia applications.
