ANALYSIS
2012 – a year of question marks The person who really knows what will happen in 2012 is a
genius and would have the possibility to become very rich. Many problems, especially the debt crisis and the Euro turbulences, are very complex and influenced by such a lot of factors - hard economic issues and also soft psychological issues. So everything could happen: between moderate increase of the economy up to a triple crisis in Europe, America and Asia. The triple crisis, of course, is a worst-case scenario and very unlikely. Anyway, there still will be strong demand for fasteners because a growing world population wants to have more cars, electrical devices, machines and buildings. So a growing market is expected also in difficult general situations. Distributors have to fulfill even more the demands from customers and support them to become more competitive in price and quality.
Werner Deggim CEO: NORMA Group
A retrospective on 2011 A major milestone for NORMA Group in 2011 was the IPO in
April 2011, which was the next logical step in order to further grow organically as well as acquisitively and thus continue our success story. We are fully convinced that a listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange will support the strong profitability and continued success of NORMA Group over the long term. With new branches in Thailand, Serbia, and Brazil we have broadened our global presence, particularly in emerging countries. Furthermore, NORMA Group expanded its facility in Qingdao to meet the continuously increasing customer demand in China. Our two US acquisitions from 2010 have been re-named NORMA Illinois and NORMA St. Clair, and are fully integrated now. This underlines our expertise in consolidating acquired companies. In 2011, the engineered joining technology market was able
to profit from the increasing demand of the strong growing industries, particularly automotive, engineering and construction. When
“ R&D must never be a cyclical assignment.”
first signs of a crisis came up in mid 2008, we acted immediately and adjusted our overall capacity. Since then, we have permanently monitored market demand, our business activity and
tightly managed our cash and profitability. As a result, we took an industry typical decline in topline but have been able to secure our profitability. In 2011, we saw no further effects from the 2009 economic
downturn. We grow by over 9% across all continents and industries, with particularly strong momentum in Asia, of course. Due to the pent-up demand from the crisis years, growth potential is also particularly strong in the automotive and engineering sectors.
64 2011 taught us to be well prepared for all situations. On one
hand, this was a financially very successful year. On the other it was full of macroeconomic uncertainties. With operational flexibility and careful planning we are able to avoid possible pitfalls. Quality of products and steady innovations always set the fundament for success. R&D must never be a cyclical assignment. The industry needs the ability to adapt quickly to new customer requirements resulting from economic trends.
The potential impact of the Eurozone crisis So far, we have not seen any impact from the Eurozone
crisis for our business. In the first nine months of 2011, market demand for NORMA Group’s products and solutions remained high across all customer groups and regions, leading to a filled order book volume of around 200 million euros (November 2011 – March 2012). In 2012, however, as a consequence of the Eurozone crisis it
is likely that the global economy will cool down and the growth of emerging markets will weaken slightly - but our business prospects are not affected. We still see our opportunities in expanding globally.
Technology drivers We are facing technological megatrends such as growing
environmental awareness, tighter emission regulations, increasing fuel costs and higher cost pressure for producers that are changing customer requirements. This trend is increasing demand for more complex engineered joining technologies used in customer end products. With our innovative solutions, we continuously address evolving customer requirements such as reductions in leakage, weight, and assembly time, as well as modularisation of production processes. Fluid solutions will play a key role in our future growth, given
that our solutions are suitable to replace elastomeric hoses in vehicle and industrial applications. Globally higher exhaust emission standards increase the demand for new technologies to treat exhaust gases. Engines for commercial vehicles, passenger cars, agricultural machines and construction vehicles are increasingly equipped with state-of-the-art technology. NORMA Group recently secured a large-scale order from
an internationally operating vehicle and engine manufacturer to develop and manufacture systems for the transportation of fluids into the exhaust pipe to reduce nitrogen oxides. Innovative
Fastener + Fixing Magazine • Issue 73 January 2012
Technology drivers In some areas there is a trend to plastics and carbon
materials, which could mean that the demand of fasteners is going down. Another trend is miniaturisation and weight reduction. These trends imply a huge challenge for the fastener industry because it could happen that new techniques will replace the old and proven solutions. This should be a very long term trend and will have no impact in the next years.
Our priorities as FDS As companies we have to be successful in our markets. As a
federation we will fight for free and fair markets, which means, we will very carefully observe unfair tendencies of specific Italian manufacturers to hinder the markets by regulations like anti-dumping taxes. In case we find out that their approach is unjustified we will fight against it.
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