This report is a translation of the original report in German, which is solely valid.
In early July 2022, voestalpine Railway Systems and the Egyptian National Railways (ENR) signed a joint venture (JV) agreement on the planned joint production of turnout systems in ENR’s existing turnout plant in Cairo, Egypt. Egypt is an important field of growth for voestalpine in the high-performance turnout segment, because the country is considered the most dynamic railway market in all of Africa. As part of the JV, voestalpine will contribute its comprehensive know-how in rail technology and help to jointly accelerate the existing facility’s transformation into a highly productive turnout plant. This production plant, too, will focus on the high-tech segment and satisfy highest quality standards. Egypt’s plans for the coming years call for extensive investments in the construction of a high-speed rail network spanning more than 1,800 km. Local production will support the long-term strategy of the Railway Systems business segment, which aims to build turnout systems locally and provides the opportunity to participate in the expansion of Egypt’s rapidly growing railway market.
A significant divestment in the Steel Division was finalized at the end of June 2022 with the closing of the sale of 80% of the voestalpine Group’s equity interest in the voestalpine Texas Group to ArcelorMittal. Based on a detailed analysis and taking into account all strategic alternatives, the decision was made in the previous business year to continue developing the business model of the direct reduction plant in Texas, USA, jointly with a partner. Over and above the remaining minority interest of 20%, the voestalpine Group also secured for itself annual deliveries of 420,000 tons of the hot briquetted iron (HBI) produced at the plant. The closing of this long-term contract supports the implementation of the first step in the decarbonization of voestalpine’s steel production in Linz and Donawitz (both Austria).
Up to the closing of the transaction at the end of June 2022, and therefore for the first quarter of the business year 2022/23, the voestalpine Texas Group was recognized as a consolidated entity and reported in the voestalpine Group’s profit from discontinued operations. Subsequent to the closing at the end of Q1, and therefore for Q2 2022/23, the relevant income of the ArcelorMittal Texas HBI Group was shown in the item “Share of profit of entities consolidated according to the equity method.”
The transaction yielded cash proceeds of EUR 753.9 million in the reporting period.