(10) Cost of sales
Accounting and measurement policies
Cost of sales
The cost of sales primarily includes the cost of manufactured products sold and the merchandise sold.
Cost comprises the following items: directly attributable costs, such as cost of materials, personnel and energy costs, depreciation and amortization, overheads attributable to the production process, inventory impairment losses and their reversals.
Cost of sales included amortization of intangible assets (excluding amortization of internally generated or separately acquired software) in the amount of € 201 million (2020: € 210 million). Material costs amounted to € 3,535 million in fiscal 2021 (2020: € 3,074 million) and were largely reported under cost of sales.
Impairment losses on inventories amounted to € 221 million (2020: € 312 million) in the reporting period; reversals of impairment losses came to € 171 million (2020: € 97 million).