Metal additive manufacturing company, SLM Solutions has reported revenue of €29 million for the first half of 2017. This is a 13.5% decrease on the comparative figure of €33.5 million for 2016.
However, new order intake grew during the reporting period by 17.9%, reaching €35.3 million. The company says the latest results indicate, “a positive trend towards growth in the level of sales of higher-performance, and consequently higher-value, machines.”
SLM sell three metal additive manufacturing systems, the SLM 125, the SLM 280 and the SLM 500.
| € million | Variance | |||
| H1 2017 | H1 2016 | € million | % | |
| Revenue | 28.99 | 33.52 | -4.53 | -13.51% |
| Operating profit/(loss) | -8.15 | -3.63 | -4.52 | 124.52% |
| Net profit/(loss) | -5.95 | -2.28 | -3.67 | 160.96% |
| Adjusted EBITA | -4.52 | -0.98 | ||
| EPS | -0.33 | -0.13 | ||
Data via SLM Solutions
New customers for metal additive manufacturing
Uwe Bögershausen, Member of the Executive Board of SLM Solutions Group AG, comments, “Additive manufacturing is becoming increasingly accepted and has meanwhile achieved strategic importance for major industrial companies.”
“We are benefiting from this trend and booked our largest individual order in the company’s history in June 2017. We continue to experience major interest in our systems. We aim to move forward in further developing and adapting our systems to meet a wide variety of production requirements through the partnerships we have entered into over the past months, amongst others with Divergent in the USA and BeamIT in Italy. Partially due to some customers’ wait-and-see attitude, the interest in our machines cannot be translated immediately into deliveries. We assume, however, that this trend is temporary and as we did in the past we will continue to focus on promoting strategic partnerships with our customers.”
For the six months new orders for 47 machines (30 June 2016: 56 machines). New customers accounted for 20 of these machines. The lower order figure means total operating revenue saw a decrease of 29.4%, SLM notes that “a rolling observation of a full year’s period as more meaningful.” The company also points to Q4 as a period where traditionally stronger sales are seen.
The company’s objective is, “remaining the technologically leading provider in the metal-based additive manufacturing area over the long term, playing a decisive role in shaping this technology.”
Additive manufacturing strategy
SLM Solutions adopt a three pillar growth strategy of R&D, full-service solutions and expanding international sales and service network.
To this extent SLM Solutions has 74 FTEs (full-time equivalents) in R&D at 30 June 2017, the comparative figure was 56 FTEs. R&D expenditure has also increased year-on-year reaching €4.2 million, compared to €3.8 million.
Aiming to evolve into a full-service solutions provider SLM established a joint venture with CADS GmbH from Austria. To expand their network the company highlight that, “customer proximity comprises a critical competitive advantage for SLM Solutions.”
“SLM Solutions is expanding its international sales and service network step-by-step through founding subsidiaries and sales partnerships locally in order to retain customers long-term, generate recurring service revenues, and acquire new customers.”
SLM Solutions has operations in Michigan, USA, Singapore, Shanghai, Moscow, Bangalore, and headquarters in Lübeck, Germany.
The full year financial forecast is €110 million to €120 million. SLM says, “ The achievement of the full-year revenue forecast is dependent on the fourth quarter of 2017 to a particularly high degree.”
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