Annual Report 2005/06 - voestalpine

marKeT environmenT anD
BUsiness perFormanCe
The companies of the Division Railway Systems
operated in a market environment that,
seen overall, was favorable during the
2005/06 business year, although the development
of the regional markets was quite
differentiated from the viewpoint of the individual
sectors.
The railway activities of the division, which
consist of the rail and turnout technology and
the rail construction logistics and services
business units, were able to expand their
leading market position during the past business
year, both with regard to special tracks
and switches and turnout systems with a
number of new international projects and
technical innovations; activities outside of
Europe continued to be intensified. The economic
situation on the railway infrastructure
markets was different in all three business
units. This underscored the importance of
consistently driving the internationalization
of the division forward, which not only
compensated for the weakness of individual
European markets but enabled the division
to penetrate new railway markets with
dynamic growth both with its own local
production sites and joint ventures with
regional partners.
Seen individually, the business performance
of the division’s railway activities can be
described as follows: In the rail technology
business sector, developments in Western
Europe were characterized primarily by an
improved market situation in Germany, the
Netherlands, and Sweden. Although the
Central and Eastern European regions are
still more or less stagnating, there were important
successes on the Hungarian, Romanian,
and Slovak markets.
On the overseas railway markets, continuing
expansion of capacities for the transport of
raw materials resulted in high demand for
premium tracks for heavy goods transport,
in particular in South Africa and Australia.
In the turnout technology business sector,
there were above average sales increases in
the USA, but also growth in the innovative
sector of “Hytronics” ® products. This technology,
which has been successful worldwide,
is a hydraulic-electronic system that
provides hydraulic turnout mechanisms as
well as monitoring and diagnosis systems;
these systems are integrated directly into
the switches and turnout systems, and they
provide railway systems operations with a
considerable reduction of the life-cycle
costs by enabling quick installation of completely
pre-assembled switches, improving
availability of the installations, and enabling
longer maintenance intervals as well as a
higher degree of safety.
In Central and Eastern Europe and in the
Baltic region, EU-financed expansion projects
resulted in a positive market trend.
In Germany, business was more difficult; the
aggressive cost reduction programs have led
to efforts by the German Federal Railways to
better utilize their own switches production
capacities, and this has led to a downward
Divisional Reports
Annual Report 2005/06