Outlook

In just about every industrial sector and the most important economies, the ongoing strength of the economic environment shaped the first quarter of the business year 2018/19. Nothing should change in this regard in the second quarter either, aside from the usual seasonal effects of summer and the impact on both revenue and results of the blast furnace repairs that are taking place during this period and have already been addressed repeatedly. Instead, considered from our current position, the growth momentum looks so stable in terms of both breadth and intensity that it seems realistic to assume that the favorable economic climate will continue across the board in the fall, i.e. up until the end of the calendar year 2018. At this time, the protectionist global trade measures of the United States and/or the corresponding retaliatory actions of other countries pose the greatest potential threat to this development.

Besides possible negative effects of these increasing political uncertainties that are still difficult to quantify, both EBITDA and EBIT of the voestalpine Group for the business year 2018/19 on the whole should equate more or less to the previous year’s levels. This again on the assumption that any such effects as well as the impact on results due to the current repairs of major facilities can be offset by and large through positive effects resulting from improvements in the economic climate of individual sectors (railway infrastructure, oil and natural gas sector) as well as the successful start-up of new major facilities.