2022, the best year for the 100-year laser giant Tongkat

Trumpf, a large international industrial laser and machine tool company headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, recently announced its fiscal year 2022 results, reporting a 20.5 percent increase in sales to €4.2 billion ($4.19 billion) for the fiscal year ending June 2022. The company's order intake for the year jumped 41.2% year-on-year to €5.6 billion, and EBIT rose 26.8% to €370 million. Despite inflationary cost pressures, the company managed to increase its EBIT margin slightly, from 10.5% in fiscal 2021 to 11.1% in fiscal 2022.

Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller, CEO of Trumpf Group

In her annual report, CEO Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller said she was "cautiously optimistic" about the outlook for the current fiscal year, which will end in June 2023, the company's 100th birthday. She acknowledged, however, that considerable uncertainty related to ongoing supply chain difficulties, inflation in material and energy costs and geopolitical instability could affect future growth prospects.

01Trumpf Group 2022 performance: Strong demand from ASML in the Netherlands and significant revenues in North America

A prominent trend for the Tom Fast Group in FY2022 is the shift in its revenue focus from Asia to Europe and North America. Interestingly, the Netherlands is now the strongest single market in the country, with sales of €838 million for the year: an impressive 81.9% increase in the Tom Fast Group's sales in the country. This turnaround is attributed to strong demand for EUV business from Dutch semiconductor lithography equipment giant ASML, which itself is experiencing huge demand for its products as chip companies scramble to expand capacity for advanced semiconductors.

The company ranks second in North America with revenues of €646 million, while Germany - once the company's largest geographic market - is now third: €589 million in sales for fiscal 2022. China is now only the fourth largest regional market for Tom Fast, as its growth rate of 9.6% in fiscal 2022 lags considerably behind that of the other regions.

02Fiscal 2022 concerns: geopolitics, energy and new crown virus

In a press release announcing the FY2022 figures, Leibinger-Kammüller said the company's strong order intake in the second half of the year will give it some resilience going forward in FY2023. Nonetheless, the Tom Fast CEO said, "There remains considerable uncertainty in the coming months as to how supply chain bottlenecks, high inflation, rising material and energy prices and transportation costs will affect our business. And the 'geopolitical uncertainty' associated with the ongoing war in Ukraine and friction between the U.S. and China has me pondering the fact that we feel increasingly subdued demand in many markets."

One obvious concern is the growing concern in Europe (especially Germany) about gas shortages and energy supplies as winter approaches. Trumpf insists that it is "not a gas-intensive company" and says its fiscal 2022 results are "only slightly impacted by higher gas prices." Still, the company expects a "significant increase" in energy costs to sales in fiscal 2023, and has taken or is considering measures to reduce natural gas demand.

Also in fiscal 2022, the company significantly increased its workforce, ending the fiscal year with 16,554 employees worldwide: a 12.1 percent increase over the previous year. The percentage of these employees engaged in research and development climbed even faster, up 14.3% year over year. This growth was accompanied by a 17.3% increase in R&D spending, reaching €448 million in the year ending June 2022.

At the same time, TomFast also reported figures for coronavirus infections, noting that the company reported 3,958 infections in fiscal year 2022, compared to 877 in fiscal year 2021. "This can be attributed to a higher overall number of infections abroad, as well as advanced test diagnostics and systematic documentation."

03Tom Fast lays out Quantum: replicating a Ninth Chapter in 5 years

As a large conglomerate, Tom Fast has also established a quantum startup, Q.ANT, which is officially leading the German €50 million investment in the light quantum computer project PhoQuant. Professor Christine Silberhorn of the Institute for Light Quantum Systems (PhoQS) at the University of Paderborn, the project's principal investigator, said at the Falling Wall conference in Germany that they will build a system similar to the "Nine Chapters" optical quantum computer within five years.

This year, Q.ANT announced a process capable of producing very powerful quantum computer chips. By creating highly specialized optical channels on a silicon chip, this photonic chip process is able to direct and control quanta at room temperature with virtually no loss.

Q.ANT's Integrated Optical Quantum Devices

About the Trumpf (Trumpf) Group.

Founded in 1923 as a series of machine shops, the Trumpf Group has grown into one of the world's leading companies in machine tools, laser technology and electronics for industrial applications.

Headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, with more than 80 years of machine tool production, the Trumpf Group is one of the world's leading companies in the field of manufacturing technology. From machine tools for processing sheet metal and materials to laser technology and electronics, Trumpf is leading the way with continuous innovation. Trumpf is setting new technical standards while working to open up newer and more products to a wide range of users.

Reference link：

https://www.optica-opn.org/home/industry/2022/october/trumpf_results_record_year_cloudy_horizon/