Spain, Switzerland: This year the manufacturer has been badly affected by the severe weather incidents for three times. As admitted by the company, this is going to adversely impact its financial results and delivery commitments.
In mid-November, Stadler held a press conference dedicated to consequences of the floods for the work of the production sites. Peter Spuhler, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Markus Bernsteiner, Stadler’s CEO, took part in the event.
The heaviest loss has been caused by the recent flood in Valencia. The local Stadler plant has not been damaged, but around 400 employees are currently unable to reach the site due to the disrupted roads. Therefore, temporarily Stadler Valencia has to operate on a reduced work schedule and postpone between 150,000 and 200,000 production hours for the next year.
Besides, about 30 production sites and warehouses of Valencia’s suppliers have been almost destroyed. “The required components cannot be delivered. We have to be looking for alternatives”, said Mr. Spuhler.
Stadler’s facility in Altenrhein, Switzerland, had to move to a part-time schedule, as well. The reason was lack of aluminium profiles supplied by Constellium’s factory in the canton of Valais, which was flooded by a storm in June. According to Mr. Bernsteiner, 800 t of aluminium profiles designated for Stadler had to be disposed. At the end of October 2024, Constellium resumed its supplies. Deliveries of aluminium profiles for the construction of train bodies are planned to be restarted at the previous pace in early 2025.
The Valencia and Altenrhein facilities are producing metro trains for Lisbon, the Citylink tram-trains, locomotives and other rolling stock. Furthermore, one of the KISS CityJet EMUs, newly manufactured for ÖBB, was destroyed in Austrian Dürnrohr when a dam burst caused flooding of the Stadler commissioning centre.
Meanwhile, Stadler continues tackling difficulties with its major contract for metro trains for the Berlin operator BVG. The LRVs’ entering service is delayed for two years because of Alstom’s appeal, interruptions in deliveries during the Covid-19 pandemic, and also software problems. Only 376 out of 1,500 cars under the framework agreement have been ordered so far, which has led to under-utilisation of the Berlin plant.
According to Stadler’s initial assessments, these unexpected events will entail the EBIT margin decline from 5% to 3%, and it will be impossible to achieve the planned revenue target of CHF 3.5–3.7 bln (€3.7–4 bln) in 2024. Now Stadler is going to launch a catch-up programme to make up for the production schedule. The company is going to reallocate its orders and employees between the production sites to mitigate the delays. Meanwhile, Stadler has not provided specific details about future deliveries.
Previously, the Swiss manufacturer has also postponed a number of deliveries. The commissioning of the abovementioned metro trains for Berlin has been shifted from 2022 to late 2024. Similar delays have occurred with the rolling stock orders for the Atlanta metro (USA), Glasgow and Newcastle (UK). The FLIRT TRIMODAL hybrid trains for Wales, the KISS EMUs for USA and the FLIRT diesel trains for Azerbaijan were also delivered one or two years later. The reasons for these delays, as explained by the company, were supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian crisis, increase of prices for materials and components, as well as technical issues.
