This report is a translation of the original report in German, which is solely valid.
Even though the COVID-19 infection rates in Europe have been rising yet again, the economic forecasts for 2021 have become increasingly optimistic. Aside from additional re-opening steps, especially in the service sector, economic stimulus programs of historic proportions lead us to expect that the economic uptrend will continue.
This positive assessment also applies to the voestalpine Group’s most important customer and market segments.
The construction, mechanical engineering, and consumer goods industries, which provided the basis for the economic rebound in recent quarters, show unchanged high demand for products of the voestalpine Group. The railway infrastructure segment, which was a stabilizing earnings factor throughout the pandemic, is expected to continue delivering good performance. The recent rebound of the energy sector (oil & natural gas) should continue in the current business year. In the aerospace industry, the build-rates of aircraft have recovered somewhat from a low level. However, the volatility in automotive customers’ orders for components and parts has grown in recent months. The bottlenecks in semiconductor supplies will probably preoccupy the automotive industry for some time to come.
Based on the Group’s results for the first quarter of the business year 2021/22 and the assumption that the current economic momentum will hold, at this time the Management Board of voestalpine AG thus expects EBITDA within a range of EUR 1,900 million to EUR 2,200 million for the business year 2021/22.