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Increasing uncertainties at the macroeconomic level due to ever more signs of a broad-based cooling of the economy determined the market environment in the first half of 2012/13.
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Continuing discussions about the sovereign debt situation in the mature economies and a significant weakening of the economic momentum in the emerging markets heightened global fears of a renewed crisis.
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Declining growth in industry segments (automobile industry, mechanical engineering, energy sector) and regions (Western and Northern Europe) that had been strong thus far are eroding the economic environment in Europe.
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Nevertheless, the voestalpine Group continues to perform solidly in all business sectors with almost full capacity utilization in all of the major production facilities.
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The revenue trend has remained practically constant compared to the previous year despite an economic environment that is much more challenging (EUR 5,932.8 million in the first half of 2012/13 compared to EUR 5,977.7 million in the first half of 2011/12).
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Due to the economic situation, the operating result has declined slightly: EBITDA has dropped by 11.5% from EUR 824.2 million (first half of 2011/12) to EUR 729.8 million (first half of 2012/13), with the EBITDA margin decreasing from 13.8% to 12.3%.
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Profit from operations (EBIT) declined by 17.1% from EUR 531.4 million (first half of 2011/12) to EUR 440.7 million (first half of 2012/13). The EBIT margin is 7.4% compared to 8.9% in the same period of the previous year.
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At EUR 269.5 million, net income was 22.1% lower than in the previous year (EUR 346.1 million).
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As a result of a significantly more positive free cash flow, the net financial debt has been reduced by 3.6% compared to March 31, 2012 to EUR 2,492.9 million.
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Despite the payment of a dividend in July 2012, equity has risen by 1.0% to EUR 4,885.2 million compared to March 31, 2012.
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Gearing ratio (net financial debt in percent of equity) has declined by 2.5 percentage points to 51.0% compared to the end of the previous business year (53.5%).
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At 46,115, the number of employees (full-time equivalent) is slightly lower than at the beginning of the business year (46,473).
