This report is a translation of the original report in German, which is solely valid.
If one were to analyze solely the company’s excellent earnings performance in the first nine months of its current business year, one might conclude that the company’s financial position reflects an economic boom. In actual fact, however, the current business year to date has been buffeted by extraordinarily volatile developments affecting the markets as well as raw materials and energy.
Nor did this situation change at the start of the business year’s final quarter. In Europe and North America, the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus is causing record levels of new infections, the bottlenecks in the global supply chains continue unabated and the cost of energy in Europe went through the roof in recent weeks.
Yet the positive trends in the company’s key markets should prevail regardless, for the following reasons. The supply chain problems particularly in the automotive industry seem to have bottomed out in the Northern fall of calendar year 2021. The rebound in the energy sector should continue. And the aerospace industry, which was hit very hard by the pandemic, recently showed clear signs of recovering.
It seems, therefore, that the economy remains resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic—a fact reflected as well in the outlook for the current business year’s final quarter. Assuming that there will be no unexpected economic distortions, the last quarter should see another substantial increase in the company’s key performance indicators over and above the already very good preceding quarters.
The Management Board of voestalpine AG expects EBITDA for the business year 2021/22 to reach the upper end of the previously communicated range and thus a number up to EUR 2,200 million.