“We got off to a good start,” said voxeljet (NASDAQ: VJET) CEO Ingo Ederer as he explored the 2022 first quarter earnings report during a conference call with investors. But even though revenues have increased and there have been some outstanding applications with its binder jetting machines, the company’s reported results show another season of net losses.

For the first quarter ended March 31, 2022, the German manufacturer of high-speed large-format 3D printers and on-demand parts services reported a 14.3% increase in revenue to 4.6 million euros ($4.9 million) compared to 4 million euros ($4.3 million) in the same period last year, mainly thanks to its on-demand services segment which increased by 63, 3% year over year.

Commenting on the growth, Ederer said, “It’s great to see this growth coming from a wide variety of applications: space exploration projects in the United States, large orders from the art and architecture in Germany, components for cooling parts in electric vehicles in the United Kingdom, etc. What we’ve seen in the past is that print-on-demand revenue is a leading indicator of future 3D printer sales, which makes us very optimistic for the rest of the year.

Since voxeljet’s binder jetting technology is particularly suitable for high-volume manufacturing due to its scalability potential, it has customers in a variety of industries including automotive, aerospace, and general engineering. . Ederer described a wide range of new applications for voxeljet technology, including a yacht company producing several thousand advanced propellers, leading US exploration companies making rocket parts more aerodynamic, automakers use voxeljet to make vehicles lighter and more energy efficient. and even the Swiss public university ETH Zürich develop 3D printed concrete structures.

Even though its services segment is doing well, revenue from the voxeljet systems division, which focuses on the development, production and sale of 3D printers, fell 32.1% to 1.4 million. euros ($1.5 million) in the first quarter of 2022, compared to 2.1 million euros. ($2.3 million) in the first quarter of last year. This change is mainly due to the drop in revenue from the sale of 3D printers in connection with the drop in the number of transactions. Notably, the company sold a new 3D printer in the first quarter of 2022, compared to two new printers that shipped in the first quarter of last year. Thus, during this period, systems revenues represented 30.6% of the total, compared to 51.4% in the first quarter of last year.

Another downside to the company’s first-quarter earnings is the reported net loss of €753,000 ($812,000) or 10 cents per share, compared to a net loss of €8.3 million ($9 million). dollars) or €1.51 per share the previous year. same quarter.

Unfortunately, these results are seen as an “ongoing concern” for the company, especially as voxeljet has recognized ongoing net losses through the year 2021, 2020 and 2019 amounting to $10.6 million. euros ($11.4 million), 15.5 million euros ($16.7 million) and 14 million euros ($15.1 million) respectively. Additionally, voxeljet recorded negative cash flow from operating activities in the three months ended March 31, 2022, as well as the years 2021, 2020 and 2019.

Voxeljet attributed the losses to lower Covid-19-related demand in its systems and services segments and said it was taking several steps to mitigate the situation. At the same time, management is preparing to sell and lease voxeljet properties located in Germany to deal with the situation.

In this regard, CFO Rudi Franz explained to investors: “We are progressing well with the planned sale and leaseback transaction of our site in Germany. If all goes as planned, we should be able to sign a deal next month. We anticipate proceeds of approximately €30 million from this transaction and plan to use this proceeds to repay debt.

Franz said they plan to repay all debts (approximately €27.4 million) with the proceeds of the customer sale-leaseback transaction from voxeljet’s headquarters in Germany. He also said that fortunately the value of real estate has appreciated considerably over the past few years in the Bayern area, which is why the estimated value of the entire complex will be around 30 million euros. euros, so everything would work out theoretically.

Overall, it seems that voxeljet is not performing as well as other competitors in the 3D printing industry. Indeed, an article published by the online stock exchange site Looking for Alpha reports that “voxeljet is likely the next takeover target,” especially now that Metal desk acquired ExOne, another manufacturer of binder jetting technology.

When it comes to voxeljet shares, the company trended higher in the first two months of 2021, only to drop back to 2020 levels in the following months. At the start of 2022, corporate stocks followed this same downward trend, which continued into April and May. Over the past month, shares of voxeljet have hovered between $4.50 and $3.86.

Despite this, voxeljet reaffirmed its forecast for 2022, expecting revenues for the second quarter of the year to be between 5 million euros (5.4 million dollars) and 6 million euros (6 .5 million dollars). For the full year, revenue could reach up to 30 million euros ($32.3 million), while net income (loss) for the fourth quarter of 2022 is expected to be neutral to positive.