Steel Division

This report is a translation of the original report in German, which is solely valid.

Market environment and business development

The war in Ukraine triggered substantial distortions in the European steel market toward the end of the business year 2021/22. Following initial uncertainties, demand turned positive at the start of the business year 2022/23 thanks to both lower steel imports and the rebound in the market. During the first business quarter, however, market conditions turned negative yet again, with the result that customers were much more cautious and pushed inventory reductions.

Demand for the steel products of voestalpine’s Steel Division during the reporting period remained good and developments in prices were pleasing, too.

Despite high order levels, the automotive industry still had to contend with supply chain bottlenecks and thus was unable even in the first quarter of 2022/23 to ramp up production. However, there has been a positive trend in order call-ups from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) since the middle of the reporting period.

The consumer goods and white goods industries enjoyed a boom in the past few years that was triggered by the COVID-19 lockdowns: Many consumers invested in new household appliances and consumer goods. This phase of extraordinarily high demand has largely passed, yet order levels in the first business quarter remained good.

The positive performance of the mechanical engineering industry in the last quarter of 2021/22 continued unabated in the first quarter of 2022/23.

There was good demand for the Steel Division’s steel products from the construction industry during the reporting period, but some areas were seeing a slackening of momentum.

The energy segment—the heavy plate segment’s most important market—continued along its positive trajectory in the reporting period. This was due mainly to brisk demand in the wake of high crude oil and natural gas prices.

Raw materials prices followed a downward trajectory in the first quarter of 2022/23. The price of metallurgical coal, in particular, dropped considerably after hitting historic highs in the previous business year. The prices of iron ore and scrap also followed a declining trend. By contrast, substantial increases in the cost of energy such as electricity and natural gas as well as the impact of the war in Ukraine on the availability of raw materials posed major challenges.

Development of the key figures

Compared with the previous business year, the Steel Division delivered clearly positive results with respect to its financial key performance indicators. In the first quarter of the business year 2022/23, revenue jumped by 51.4% to EUR 1,826.2 million (Q1 2021/22: EUR 1,205.9 million). While delivery volumes were stable year over year, prices improved significantly due to the sharp increases in the cost of raw materials and energy as well as solid demand overall. By raising the prices of its products, the division not only offset the marked increase in its input costs but also substantially boosted its gross margin. Consequently, in the first quarter of 2022/23, EBITDA more than doubled to EUR 526.8 million year over year (Q1 2021/22: EUR 245.1 million). This raised the EBITDA margin from 20.3% to 28.8%. The increase in EBIT was even more pronounced: It skyrocketed in the reporting period by 158.3% to EUR 461.8 million with a margin of 25.3% (Q1 2021/22: EUR 178.8 million, margin of 14.8%).

The number of employees (FTE) in the Steel Division as of June 30, 2022, fell slightly by 0.6% to 10,366. The number of employees as of June 30, 2021, was 10,429.