WIESBADEN (dpa-AFX) - The continuing weakness of the wind industry is causing problems for carbon fiber specialist SGL Carbon. Low demand in the division around carbon fibers hurt the group's figures in the first nine months of the current year, which the other three segments were also unable to fully compensate for. As a result, the SDax company became somewhat more pessimistic for the full year. SGL shares barely budged in the afternoon, while the SDax recovered significantly.

For the full year, SGL Carbon is now targeting the lower end of its forecast range of €160 million to €180 million for adjusted operating profit (adjusted Ebitda), management said in Wiesbaden on Thursday. In the first nine months of the current year, adjusted operating profit fell 4.5 percent year-on-year to €130 million.

The SGL share recently almost stood still at €5.84. This was a continuation of the recent stabilization, after having lost considerable ground since mid-May. Since the beginning of the year, the share price has fallen by almost 16 percent. Meanwhile, the small cap index SDax recovered on Thursday with a gain of almost 3.5 percent.

Due to weak demand from the wind industry, SGL Carbon had to partially curtail production in its carbon fiber division.

The wind power industry is currently suffering from high costs and supply chain problems. At the end of July, SGL Carbon had already taken a write-down on the assets of the carbon fiber division, which amounted to 44.7 million euros.

As a result, the company earned only 5.3 million euros on the bottom line from January to the end of September, compared with 70.6 million euros in the same period last year.

Sales in the carbon fiber division slumped by a third in the months from January to September. Group sales fell by 3.8 percent to 822 million euros. In 2023, SGL Carbon still expects to reach the previous year's level of around €1.14 billion. Analysts had expected slightly higher sales and earnings.

Analyst Henrik Paganetty of investment house Jefferies does not expect demand from the wind industry to recover in the second half of the year, but says the problems are more short-term in nature, while the long-term trend is intact. SGL Carbon itself sees 2023 as a stabilization and investment year.

The bright spot for SGL was in particular the division around graphite components, which are in particular demand in the semiconductor industry. Sales here rose by 9.4% to a good €418 million in the first nine months, making the segment the Group's largest sales driver.

By its own admission, SGL is investing the majority of its capital expenditure in this business. The Process Technology and Composite Solutions divisions also grew from January to the end of September./lfi/niw/mis