Weak demand in some of our customer markets is increasingly hindering SGL Carbons sales growth. After nine months in 2024, SGL Carbon generated sales of 781.9 million, which was slightly below the prior-year level at minus 4.8% (9M 2023: 821.7 million). Adjusted for currency and structural effects, Group sales decreased by 3.6%. Adjusted EBITDA, an important key figure for the Group, remained at a comparable level of 127.6 million in the reporting period (9M 2023: 130.0 million). Despite the slight decrease in sales, the adjusted EBITDA margin improved from 15.4% in Q1 and 16.7% in Q2 to 16.9% in Q3 and amounted to 16.3% after nine months (9M 2023: 15.8%). The reasons for the improved adjusted EBITDA margin are, in particular, product mix effects in the Graphite Solutions and Process Technology business units. By contrast, the ongoing weakness in demand and the associated price pressure for carbon and textile fiber products in the Carbon Fibers business unit continued to weigh on the Groups sales and earnings development.
Even with our diversified product portfolio, we can no longer completely withdraw from the generally weak economic environment. In addition, there was a decline in demand for specialty graphite products for the semiconductor industry in the third quarter. In particular, our products for the manufacture of silicon carbide-based semiconductors are suffering from the restrained demand for electric vehicles on the customer side, explains CEO Dr. Torsten Derr. While the last 18 months were characterized by enormous demand for silicon carbide semiconductors and insufficient production capacities, the market has cooled down significantly. Due to a lack of demand from the automotive industry, our semiconductor customers have significantly reduced order volumes. We do not expect to see a significant upturn in demand for our specialty graphite products until the sales figures for electric vehicles pick up again.
Based on the adjusted EBITDA of 127.6 million and taking into account depreciation and amortization of 41.0 million (9M 2023: 43.3 million) and one-off effects as well as non-recurring items of minus 18.3 million (9M 2023: minus 47.2 million), EBIT after nine months of 2024 will be 68.3 million (9M 2023: 39.5 million). The one-off effects and non-recurring items result, among other things, from the restructuring measures at Carbon Fibers and the Battery Solutions business line as well as from expenses for a strategy project. When comparing with the previous year, it should be noted that the first nine months of 2023 were disproportionately affected by an impairment loss on the assets of Carbon Fibers ( 44.7 million).
Development of the business unitsAfter nine months in 2024, sales in the Graphite Solutions business unit stagnated at 412.5 million, the same level as in the prior-year period (9M 2023: 418.4 million). While sales in this business unit had still grown slightly by 1.3% in the first half of 2024, the slowdown in demand in the Semiconductor & LED market segment weighed on Q3 2024. The reason for the weakening demand for our graphite products is the significantly lower-than-expected decline in electric vehicles, which in particular use silicon carbide semiconductors. Our products are needed to manufacture silicon carbide-based semiconductors, meaning that the market development of these semiconductors has a direct impact on our business. Looking at the first nine months of 2024 as a whole, slight sales increases in the Semiconductor & LED and Automotive & Transport market segments were offset by the decline in demand in the other market segments.
Adjusted EBITDA at Graphite Solutions increased by 4.8% to 104.3 million (9M 2023: 99.5 million) despite the lower level of sales. This is mainly due to the change in the product mix compared with the first nine months of the previous year. Despite the decline in demand in Q3 2024, overall production capacity used for our silicon carbide semiconductor customers was higher than in the previous year. Accordingly, the adjusted EBITDA margin improved year-on-year to 25.3% (9M 2023: 23.8%).
Process Technology generated sales of 106.2 million and continued its positive business performance with an 11.0% increase in sales in a nine-month comparison. This is also reflected in the adjusted EBITDA, which increased from 17.5 million in the same period of the previous year to 25.6 million (+46.3%). Higher capacity utilization and positive product mix effects led to an improvement in the adjusted EBITDA margin from 18.3% in the first nine months of 2023 to 24.1% in the reporting period.
The Carbon Fibers business units sales for the first nine months of 2024 amounted to 157.1 million, significantly below the figure of 179.6 million for the prior-year period. The decline is due in particular to the continued weak demand from the wind industry and to the increasing competitive pressure resulting from global overcapacities for carbon and textile fibers.
Idle production capacities and the associated lack of fixed cost absorption as well as declining margins for commodity products led to a further deterioration in the adjusted EBITDA of the Carbon Fibers. The adjusted EBITDA of the Carbon Fibers business unit fell to minus 7.9 million in the first nine months of 2024 (9M 2023: 3.2 million). It should be noted that the adjusted EBITDA of the Carbon Fibers business unit includes an earnings contribution of 11.6 million from the joint venture BSCCB, which is accounted for At-Equity (9M 2023: 14.1 million). Excluding this contribution from the At-Equity accounted BSCCB, the adjusted EBITDA of Carbon Fibers would have been minus 19.6 million (9M 2023: minus 10.5 million).
SGL Carbon assumes that demand for carbon fibers will not recover in the coming months and that the realizable prices for these products
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
13/03/2026
Spotify has always been built around your taste. More than 80% of listeners say personalization is what they love most about us. Now we're taking that even ...
13/03/2026
The new Spotify Legends Club has opened its doors. Its members: select German-sp...
13/03/2026
Pushing drum sampler technology into new territories
The latest version of Klevgrand's software drum sampler has just arrived, boasting a newly designe...
13/03/2026
Expanded headphone support & engine improvements
IK Multimedia's recently introduced ARC On-Ear system brings the power of their monitoring-correction s...
13/03/2026
Extra sound collections, more presets & new Keys category
UVI's rhythm and pattern instrument has just received a major update that introduces four new ...
13/03/2026
13 Mar 2026
VEON Delivers Record Digital Growth: 4Q25 Digital Revenues Grow 84%...
13/03/2026
Friday 13 March 2026
Sky Adds Blood on Snow to Original Film Slate in Acquisiti...
13/03/2026
RT has announced today that Rick O'Shea is the new presenter of Arena RT Radio 1's flagship weeknight arts and culture programme. Rick has been pres...
13/03/2026
Lights! Camera! Action! The 98th Oscars set to air live as RT backs the Irish n...
12/03/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 11th March, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dyna...
12/03/2026
In Latin America, women are shaping music and defining its future. To kick off t...
12/03/2026
En Am rica Latina, las mujeres est n moldeando la m sica y definiendo su futuro....
12/03/2026
Let's turn back the clock 20 years: The music landscape was a world away fro...
12/03/2026
Bad Bunny is no stranger to Spotify's Billions Club. In fact, he has a whopp...
12/03/2026
Spotify was at the London Book Fair this week, joining conversations across the publishing industry about how people can make reading part of their daily lives....
12/03/2026
Mastering tool improves mono compatibility
Tokyo Dawn Labs' Ohlhorst Digital range is a series of mastering-focused plug-ins developed by Jan Ohlhorst, ...
12/03/2026
Wave FX processor integrated into four products
Lewitt have teamed up with Elgato to create a new processor for the company's Wave Next product range, i...
12/03/2026
Free tool for annotating audio files
Mix Notes is a new, free iOS App that provides users with a simple way to annotate their audio files. It's been cre...
12/03/2026
Side-chain ducking tool gets an upgrade
Devious Machines' popular side-chaining and envelope-shaping tool has just been kitted out with an improved enve...
12/03/2026
Ceremony to take place on 16 April 2026
The MPG (Music Producers Guild) have revealed the full shortlist for this year's MPG Awards, which will be takin...
12/03/2026
Emulates three classic dbx 160 variants
The latest arrival to Overloud's Gem Series plug-in range faithfully recreates not one, but three versions of th...
12/03/2026
New granular soft synth announced
Said to be their most advanced software synthesizer to date, Baby Audio's latest release has been built on a new granu...
12/03/2026
Latest version now live!
Edit 11 March 2026 - Bitwig Studio 6 is now live, and available for all to download!
The latest version of Bitwig's DAW softwa...
12/03/2026
Latest free eBook now available!
Designed for recording engineers, audio-technology students and technically minded musicians, our latest free eBook deliver...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity expands SITLine network encryptor portfolio - more...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to showcase future-proof EMC testing solutions at EMV 2026 Rohde & Schwarz will participate in EMV 2026, Europe's premier trade fair and c...
12/03/2026
Modern media operations demand a platform that unites automation, orchestration, and human oversight without compromise. In this post, we explore the six key te...
12/03/2026
A deep dive into the platform
Architecture The Blue Lucy platform follows a distributed microservices architecture, meaning the overall operational capability...
12/03/2026
Orchestration platform enables broadcasters to deploy multiple AI models safely with full auditability, rights protection, and regulatory oversight.
LONDON, En...
12/03/2026
Wuppertal March 12, 2026
Riedel Expands Managed Technology Division in the Ame...
12/03/2026
Advanced Media Server Delivers Double the Channel Density at Half the Cost per C...
12/03/2026
The Late Late Show Show St Patrick's Day special
Dancing with the Stars f...
11/03/2026
First Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) deployment of the emergency.lu platform for refugees and their host communities' use provides dependable broadband for humani...
11/03/2026
Following a successful first series, UKTV today announces the commission of two ...
11/03/2026
Wednesday 11 March 2026
Sky and CANAL launch new partnership to develop English-language drama
Sky and CANAL are today announcing a strategic co commissioni...
11/03/2026
NTCA, Cartesian Release New Report on the Business Case for USF
March 11, 2026
Network Economics
News
NTCA - March 11, 2026 - As the FCC and Congr...
11/03/2026
TELL US YOUR (SHORT) STORIES
The 2026 RT Short Story Competition is now open for entries
Recognising and rewarding the best new Irish fiction writing for...
11/03/2026
RT 's The Traitors Ireland is among the nominees for the 2026 Celtic Media Festival Torc Awards for Excellence, announced today....
10/03/2026
10 Mar 2026
VEON's Largest Market Pakistan Almost Triples Mobile Spectrum i...
09/03/2026
Contains all six dual-ensemble libraries
VSL's Duality Strings series offers an intriguing alternative to your average string library, capturing two str...
09/03/2026
Outstanding Contribution To UK Music
Photo: Samuel Bradley
Ahead of their upcoming MPG Awards, the Music Producers Guild (MPG) have revealed the latest win...
09/03/2026
Two new high-quality DI boxes announced
Boasting some impressive technical specifications and versatile routing options, Strymon's latest active DI boxe...
09/03/2026
Latest MPE-capable Soundbox library released
The follow-up release for Sonora Cinematic's Pure Nylon has arrived, and becomes the latest addition to the...
09/03/2026
Popular wireless mic head design revived
Sennheiser have revealed that the MD 9235, a cardioid mic head designed to pair up with their handheld wireless sys...
Weak demand in some of our customer markets is increasingly hindering SGL Carbons sales growth. After nine months in 2024, SGL Carbon generated sales of 781.9 million, which was slightly below the prior-year level at minus 4.8% (9M 2023: 821.7 million). Adjusted for currency and structural effects, Group sales decreased by 3.6%. Adjusted EBITDA, an important key figure for the Group, remained at a comparable level of 127.6 million in the reporting period (9M 2023: 130.0 million). Despite the slight decrease in sales, the adjusted EBITDA margin improved from 15.4% in Q1 and 16.7% in Q2 to 16.9% in Q3 and amounted to 16.3% after nine months (9M 2023: 15.8%). The reasons for the improved adjusted EBITDA margin are, in particular, product mix effects in the Graphite Solutions and Process Technology business units. By contrast, the ongoing weakness in demand and the associated price pressure for carbon and textile fiber products in the Carbon Fibers business unit continued to weigh on the Groups sales and earnings development.
