Cooling down of the global economy throughout the entire business year 2012/13; move toward stabilization in the second half of the year lacked sufficient momentum to reverse the trend.

Regionally varied development with upward trends in the USA and, more recently, in Brazil, as opposed to dwindling momentum in Asia (especially China); in Europe, continuing recessive trends due to the crisis in Southern Europe and broad-based national austerity measures.

Group undertakes its largest ever foreign investment—construction of a direct reduction plant in Texas.

All reporting categories improve significantly compared to the previous year, which was adversely affected by non-recurring provisions in the amount of EUR 205.0 million.

Dividend proposed to the Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting: EUR 0.90 per share (after EUR 0.80 per share in the previous year)—dividend yield increased from 2.9% to 3.8%.

At 46,351, number of employees (FTE/full-time equivalent) as of March 31, 2013 remains practically constant (previous year: 46,473).