Key Figures of the voestalpine Group

In the business year 2008/09, environmentrelated investments of the voestalpine Group came to around EUR 49 million at the Austrian sites alone. While they declined in comparison to the previous record set last year (EUR 61 million), they are nevertheless above the already high level of the business year 2006/07 (EUR 47 million). The current expenses for the operation and maintenance of environmental protection systems came to EUR 225 million, thus significantly exceeding the all-time high achieved last year (EUR 206 million). The increase in comparison to last year, particularly at the Linz and Donawitz locations, is due, among other factors, to the need to purchase CO2 certificates that was defined during the business year 2008/09 and set forth in the procurement strategy for the trading period 2008-2012.

The R&D expenses of the voestalpine Group in the business year 2008/09 came to EUR 112 million. This not only corresponds to another increase versus the previous year (EUR 93 million) by 20.4%, but when compared over the long term means that the voestalpine Group has more than tripled its annual expenditures for research and development over the past ten years. The research ratio (R&D expenses divided by the Group’s total revenue) was at 0.9% in the year under review (2007/08: 0.9%); the ratio of R&D expenses to economic value added came to 2.6% (previous year: 2.2%). Group-wide, a total of 500 employees are currently working in the more narrowly defined segment of Research & Development.