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5. Inventories
6. Property, plant
and equipment
Receivables of 30,036 thousand euros had been sold as of December 31, 2004 (2003: 45,342
thousand euros). The Group retains rights and insignificant obligations as a result of these sales
(“retained interests”), including the provision of settlement services. The Group only sells receivables
covered by credit insurance. Expenses of 1,460 thousand euros (2003: 1,477 thousand
euros) were incurred in connection with the sale of receivables. Most of these expenses relate
to interest and the costs of assuming the debtor default risk, which are reported in the statement
of income in the financial result.
The inventories are made up as follows:
‘000 euros Dec. 31, 2004 Dec. 31, 2003
Raw materials, consumables and supplies 42,845 43,288
Work in process 3,270 4,109
Finished goods and merchandise 57,743 53,245
Payments on account 696 531
Total 104,554 101,173
The increase in finished goods and merchandise is due, firstly, to building up inventories at the
Rheda-Wiedenbrück site to avoid delivery bottlenecks during the closure process and, secondly,
because sleepers were produced in advance for various foreign Pfleiderer track systems projects
and made available for call-off.
Please refer to the analysis of Group fixed assets with regard to changes in property, plant and
equipment.
Property, plant and equipment are made up as follows:
‘000 euros Dec. 31, 2004 Dec. 31, 2003
Land, land rights and buildings including buildings
on third-party land 145,333 139,154
Technical equipment and machines 152,037 133,352
Other equipment, furniture and fixtures 11,970 12,434
Payments on account and assets under construction 18,943 14,339
Total 328,283 299,279
Depreciation of property, plant and equipment amounted in fiscal 2004 to 33,735 thousand euros
(2003: 34,049 thousand euros), of which 518 thousand euros in the fiscal year (2003: 0 thousand
euros) comprised impairment losses that were recognized in order to write off parts of the
property of the Coswig concrete poles plant that are no longer used. The impairment losses
relate exclusively to the Business Segment Infrastructure Technology.
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