The dry weather in Europe, which has caused the Danube River to fall to critical water levels, is not impacting the materials logistics of voestalpine, its executives have said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Although voestalpine’s main mill in Linz is located on the river, its intake of material mostly takes place via land, ceo Herbert Eibensteiner has said.
“A relatively low percentage of our logistics runs via the Danube, so that we can compensate that with more rail transports,” he told Kallanish. The steelmaker operates its own railway cargo company, LogServe, which Eibensteiner said has paid off given the current situation.
According to cfo Gerald Mayer, voestalpine has an annual material intake of 17 million tonnes, of which about 10% comes in on the Danube.
“Several years ago, we decided that we want several alternatives for each material and each means of transport,” Eibensteiner said. “Of course, in the situation now, everyone wants to transfer to rail. But certainly, it would be good if we had some more rain in September.”
Eibensteiner added that the mill is not short of cooling water either, as is currently the case with a nuclear power plant in Hungary located on the Danube.
