Financial key performance indicators

The marked increase in the revenue of the High Performance Metals Division during the business year 2022/23 reflects the exorbitant increases in the cost of raw materials and energy that the division translated into substantially higher sales prices. Strong competitive differentiation at the product level supported this development. In turn, this enabled the division not only to offset the sharp increase in the cost of alloys, but also to implement fair market prices for its products more or less across the board in the face of significant energy price increases, among others. But the revenue increase also stems from an improved product mix resulting from the accelerating momentum in both the aerospace industry and the energy sector. Delivery volumes, by contrast, declined slightly year over year. On the whole, the High Performance Metals Division boosted revenue in the business year 2022/23 by 24.2% to EUR 3,789.6 million (2021/22: EUR 3,052.2 million). It also delivered solid EBITDA, which jumped by 40.6% to EUR 561.5 million with a margin of 14.8% (2021/22: EUR 399.4 million, margin of 13.1%). This includes positive non-recurring effects of EUR 133 million from the sale of real property belonging to voestalpine High Performance Metals Deutschland in Düsseldorf, Germany. An advantageous product mix further fueled the division’s positive EBITDA performance. By contrast, EUR 173 million in negative non-recurring effects weighed on the division’s EBIT. This includes impairment losses of EUR 54 million on the assets of Buderus Edelstahl (Wetzlar, Germany), for one, and impairment losses of EUR 119 million on the goodwill of HPM Production, a cash generating unit (CGU), for another. EBIT for the previous business year, by contrast, included only EUR 15 million in impairment losses. As a result, EBIT for the business year 2022/23 rose but slightly year over year by 5.4% to EUR 239.2 million (2021/22: EUR 226.9 million). The EBIT margin declined in the same period from 7.4% to 6.3%.

A quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) comparison of the High Performance Metals Division’s performance in the business year’s second half also reveals the substantial improvement in its financial key performance indicators (KPIs). Revenue climbed 11.2% to EUR 1,005.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2022/23, up from EUR 904.2 million in the third. While prices gave way somewhat quarter to quarter due to the decline in the cost of raw materials and energy, the division succeeded in substantially expanding its delivery volumes. Its EBITDA skyrocketed by 206.1% to EUR 237.2 million in the fourth quarter, up from EUR 77.5 million in the third, with the margin soaring from 8.6% to 23.6%. This includes the positive non-recurring effects of EUR 133 million mentioned earlier in the year-over-year comparison. EBIT for the fourth quarter of 2022/23 multiplied many times over to EUR 203.4 million with a margin of 20.2% (Q3 2022/23: EUR 39.3 million, margin of 4.3%).

As of March 31, 2023, the number of employees (FTE) in the High Performance Metals Division rose 2.7% to 13,654 (2021/22 reporting date: 13,291) thanks to improved economic conditions in the aerospace industry as well as in the oil and natural gas sector.