Financial key performance indicators

In the business year 2022/23, in terms of revenue the Steel Division surpassed the all-time high it achieved in the previous business year by an even more pronounced margin. The 16.6% increase in revenue to EUR 6,650.3 million (2021/22: EUR 5,701.8 million) reflects all-time high product prices in an environment characterized by exorbitant increases in the cost of raw materials and energy. Sales volumes, by contrast, fell slightly short of the levels achieved a business year earlier. Both the weakening economic momentum and inventory reductions in the market prevented the Steel Division from achieving full capacity utilization, particularly in the third business quarter. On the earnings side, however, the division almost matched the all-time highs it posted in the business year 2021/22. The operating result (EBITDA) for the business year 2022/23 is EUR 1,120.4 million (margin of 16.8%) and thus just 2.7% less than the previous business year’s EBITDA of EUR 1,150.9 million (margin of 20.2%). The division prepared the ground for its excellent performance especially in the reporting period’s first half. It is worth pointing out that 80% of voestalpine’s equity interest in voestalpine Texas was sold to ArcelorMittal in the business year ended, with the deal being closed at the end of June 2022. The fully consolidated, Texas-based direct reduction plant was shown in the item, “Income from discontinued operations,” both during the previous business year and in the first quarter of the business year 2022/23. Starting in the second quarter of 2022/23, the earnings of voestalpine’s 20% stake in the ArcelorMittal Texas HBI Group were shown in the item, “Income from entities consolidated at equity.” A total of EUR 32 million in impairment losses were taken on the 20% stake in the ArcelorMittal Texas HBI Group in the fourth quarter of 2022/23. At EUR 862.5 million (margin of 13.0%), the profit from operations (EBIT) for the reporting period missed the previous business year’s result of EUR 889.1 million (margin of 15.6%) by a mere 3.0%.

The quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) comparison of the third and fourth quarters of the business year 2022/23 shows substantial improvements in the Steel Division’s financial key performance indicators (KPIs). Revenue for Q4 2022/23 shot up by 13.7% to EUR 1,709.1 million (Q3 2022/23: EUR 1,503.7 million). This was due primarily to the strong rebound in delivery volumes following very moderate demand in the third quarter. Starting from a very high level and subject to a time lag relative to developments in the spot markets, the contract prices for the Steel Division weakened somewhat. The fact that the division’s earnings performance in the fourth quarter followed a clearly positive trend nonetheless stems from satisfactory delivery volumes as well as slightly easing raw material and energy costs. As noted above in the year-over-year comparison, EUR 32 million in impairment losses on voestalpine’s 20% equity stake in the ArcelorMittal Texas HBI Group adversely affected EBITDA in the reporting period’s fourth quarter. Nonetheless, the division’s EBITDA soared 30.8% to EUR 183.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2022/23, up from EUR 140.4 million in the third, raising the EBITDA margin from 9.3% to 10.7%. EBIT even skyrocketed by 56.6% to EUR 119.8 million with a margin of 7.0% (Q3 2022/23: EUR 76.5 million, margin of 5.1%).

Following the slight increase in the number of the Steel Division’s employees (FTE) in the business year 2021/22 due to the improvement in the economic environment, as of March 31, 2023, the number of employees declined again somewhat by 0.6% to 10,636 (March 31, 2022: 10,703).