Sales declined by 6% and profit by 67% compared with the first three months of the previous year, despite what Managing Director Stefan Widing describes as "rather favorable conditions on the metals markets and in the mining sector in general".

The infrastructure and industrial sectors, especially in Europe, are suffering, while these sectors are still holding up well in North America. This is a relatively reliable indicator of the worrying economic situation on the Old Continent, which has undoubtedly entered a recession despite the European Central Bank's attempts at reassuring communication.

Sandvik, which was just emerging from a long period of drought between 2014 and 2021 - characterized by a veritable nuclear winter in the raw materials sector - was hoping to have returned to growth. Satisfactory in 2021 and the first half of 2022, it has unfortunately been in freefall ever since.

This, despite the $4.5 billion invested in acquisitions since 2020. Moreover, in the first quarter of 2024, this external growth strategy continued with the takeovers of American software solutions distributor Cimquest, and German cutting instrument manufacturer Almü.

The Swedish group has always asked for its economic performance to be assessed over the long term, to take account of the powerful cyclical effects in the markets it serves. In this respect, it should be noted that in US dollars, sales in 2023 will be exactly the same as they were ten years earlier.

Operating profit and net income, on the other hand, almost doubled over the period. The group's concentrated investment in the development of its digital tools and the weight of the after-market - which accounts for two-thirds of its sales - are behind this expansion in margins.

Speaking of long-term trends, Sandvik's valuation is currently right on its ten-year average. Remarkably, said valuation has never fallen below nine times earnings over the period; that was in 2018, at the lowest point in the raw materials sector.

Even in the second quarter of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, the Swedish group's valuation never fell below thirteen times earnings, and held up better than that of world leader Caterpillar.