This report is a translation of the original report in German, which is solely valid.
The first quarter of the business year 2023/24 was very satisfactory for the voestalpine Group overall, although the overall economic mood in some segments has already clouded over noticeably.
As expected, order intake from the construction, mechanical engineering and consumer goods industry market segments weakened. The central banks’ measures to fight inflation seem to have reached the manufacturing industry. Assuming no short-term policy reversal by the central banks, demand from these market segments can be expected to remain weak throughout the rest of the business year 2023/24.
On the other hand, the automotive segment in voestalpine’s customer portfolio is performing at least stably overall. This development should by and large continue for the rest of the business year 2023/24 from today’s perspective.
In the energy sector, a certain softening is expected for the conventional part (oil & natural gas) in the further course of the business year 2023/24, but demand should remain at an overall attractive level. For the renewable energy sector, a continuation of the currently very good performance is expected for the rest of the business year.
The railway systems and aerospace industries will also continue their very good development.
From the perspective of the voestalpine portfolio, the strongest economic slowdown is expected in Europe from a regional point of view, while a rather moderately weaker economic development is anticipated for North America. South America (Brazil) should experience a largely stable development, whereas the Asian economic area (China) should grow slightly.
As this development essentially reflects the assessment of the Management Board at the beginning of the business year 2023/24, it remains unchanged:
Assuming that the global economy will not be hit by massive economic distortions on account of the central banks’ interest rate polices and that there will be no further escalation scenarios in the Ukraine war or additional geopolitical tensions, the Management Board of voestalpine AG expects the Group to generate EBITDA of between EUR 1.7 billion and EUR 1.9 billion in the business year 2023/24.