Letter to Shareholders

In the next months, Europe will be facing an exciting and suspenseful time, in both the political and economic arenas. A newly elected European Parliament must rise to the challenge of installing a Commission that is not only aware of the problems but is also solution-oriented. The individual interests—particularly of the large EU member states—have become significantly more powerful in recent years, and the new Commission must be able to stand up to these interests better than the outgoing Commission did. In an environment that is becoming ever more complex and challenging from a geopolitical perspective, this is the only way to be able to position Europe successfully within the interplay of global forces—both politically and economically—for the long term.

From an economic perspective, with the definition of environmental and climate policy objectives for the period up to 2030, fundamental decisions will need to be made in the coming fall that will definitively impact the competitive position of European industry for decades. Energy, climate, and environmental policy that is affordable on a global scale and that no longer ignores technical and economic feasibility criteria—these are the essential requirements to maintain Europe as a competitive location for business and industry at least to the extent that it currently still exists. Everyone in the political arena—both at the European and the national level—must be clear about one thing: it is not enough to secure the Euro in the long term, to rehabilitate national budgets, and to implement a new order for banks and financial markets. Even if all of these measures are of existential importance, the decisive factor will ultimately be whether we will be able to provide the manufacturing industries in Europe, which have such long value chains, with long-term, sustainable prospects and to make them the backbone of our economy that can provide jobs and broad-based prosperity. There is no longer a great deal of time to build the confidence necessary for this process. The cautious stance adopted by companies in many European countries with regard to capital investment speaks a very clear language.

The coming fall will see the last phase of the changing of the guard in the operational management of the divisions in the voestalpine Group. At the conclusion of a three-and-a-half-year process, which has been both controlled and consistent, all fourteen of the executive positions in the Group’s four divisions will be filled by a new generation of managers. Beginning as of October 1, 2014, together with the CEO and CFO, the four Divisional Heads will form the six-member Management Board of voestalpine AG.

We would like to thank all of the participants in this process that proceeded so professionally and without any sign of heckling from the sidelines: the Supervisory Board of our company, the Works Council, and not last, those colleagues who loyally and constructively relinquished their positions in the individual divisions to the next generation.

This smooth transition of operational responsibility to the next generation gives our business partners and shareholders, but also our employees, the certainty that in the future, the name “voestalpine” will continue to be synonymous with top quality, state-of-the-art technology, consummate professionalism, and the utmost commitment. And furthermore, as this new generation takes the helm at the conclusion of this orderly process, we have created the necessary prerequisites to evolve today’s motto of “One Step Ahead” to “One Significant Step Ahead” in the future.

Linz, August 4, 2014

The Management Board