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voestalpine able to boost results in first half year 2010/11

18 November 2010 | 

voestalpine Group was able to boost its results in the first half of the business year 2010/11.

  • voestalpine group increases EBIT yoy almost tenfold up to 414 mio EUR
  • Revenue goes up by 24.2% due to significant growth in sales
  • With 250 mio EUR Profit for the period nearly reaches level before crisis
  • Gearing Ratio substantially reduced

voestalpine Group was able to boost its results in the first half of the business year 2010/11. With an EBIT increased almost tenfold up to 414.2 mio EUR compared to 42.7 mio EUR in the same period last year, Net Income was clearly back in profit zone with 249.7 mio EUR. At the same time revenue increased by 24.2% from 4.18 bn EUR to 5.19 bn EUR. While the number of permanent staff was slightly downsized to under 39.900, the group was able to reduce its gearing ratio substantially from 90% to 66%.

This significant increase in revenue and operating results can be seen both at the group level and in all five divisions, with full utilization of the crude steel production capacity in the Steel and Railway Systems divisions, while the Special Steel, Profilform, and Automotive divisions operating at almost full capacity. A trend which is expected to continue in the upcoming months thanks to an overall positive development on most of the important main markets.

Altough taking an in-deph look at the situation in the various countries and industry sectors a more differentiated picture appears. In contrast to an ongoing positive development in the large economies in Asia, parts of Europe and Brazil, the situation in the USA remains critical. A similar ambivalence has to be stated regarding the various industry sectors: while the areas of automotive engineering, machine building, consumer goods, renewable energy and the exploration of oil and gas and enjoy a constant recovery, the outlook for the construction and building sector is less favourable due to the effects of cuts in public spending in many countries.

As dramatically as the broadly-based economic reversal began two years ago in the fall of 2008, so swiftly and unexpectedly did the recovery start in the summer of 2009 at least for the industry. But anyone who is using the dangerously overheated economic situation of the first half of 2008, as a yardstick will have to wait for quite some time for an all-clear signal. And that is a good thing, because then, the next economic slump would be inevitable. For the near future, we should be satisfied with growth that is not quite so dynamic, but modest and sustainable.

Dr. Wolfgang Eder, CEO of voestalpine AG

As agenda for the upcoming months Eder defined three major projects for the voestalpine Group. Under the headline “Doing our homework consistently”, the CEO announced the completion of the structural modernization in the divisions Steel and Special Steel, an accelerated orientation of the group towards products and markets for the coming decades, and the realization of the major part of the cost-cutting and efficiency improvement programs with the objective of achieving an optimization of EUR 600 million by 2012.

This clear agenda in mind and against a quite favourable economic backdrop from today’s perspective a doubling of last year’s profit from operations (EBIT) of EUR 352 million for the business year 2010/11 appears to be assured.