Procurement and energy market

Depending on the market situation, the purchase prices for raw materials, energy, and transport and construction services may fluctuate.

We respond to the risk of increasing energy prices among other things by using appropriate derivative financial instruments and entering into long-­term procurement contracts. However, these safeguards also limit opportunities arising from trends in energy prices. In the event of falling prices, we do not participate in the market development.

This means that depending on the market and compe­t­itive situation, it may not be possible or may only be possible to a very limited extent to pass increased costs on to the customer in the short term. This in turn has a negative impact on margins.

The pooling of demands and optimization of procure­ment processes create opportunities to leverage further potential in terms of procurement prices.

Noticeable train-­path price increase outside of Germany cannot always be passed on to customers because of the com­­­petitive situation.