Market trends have not changed significantly for voestalpine following the start of its 2024/25 business year in April, the Austrian group said when presenting its annual results on Wednesday.
In fiscal 2023/24 – ending March 2024 – voestalpine achieved satisfactory results, with overseas markets performing better than Europe. Looking at its customer segments, it expects good demand from railway infrastructure, aerospace, and warehouse technology to continue. The automotive industry and the energy sector, as its main segments, should largely continue their stable development to date, the group noted.
At the annual press conference attended by Kallanish, chief executive Herbert Eibensteiner conceded that the energy sector will not repeat last year’s boom, as exploration and pipeline projects have slowed down. Last year’s “problem children” – the construction, mechanical engineering, and consumer goods segments – are likely to remain at least at their current level. “It seems that the bottom has been reached here – at least, we do not see a further deterioration,” he observed.
The group’s revenue in 2023/24 was its second-highest in history, at €16.7 billion ($18.2 billion), after achieving record revenue of €18.2 billion in the previous year. Key figures have now “returned to normal” in the latest reporting year, voestalpine noted. Ebitda reached €1.7 billion, down from €2.5 billion. Ebit came to €570 million. While the economic slowdown was partly responsible for the earnings drop from the previous year, non-recurring effects also played a role, the company said.
Voestalpine’s management will continue to expand the group’s processing activities globally in the 2024/25 business year (see separate story).
Christian Koehl Germany
