voestalpine expects its FY 2020 EBITDA in the neighbourhood of $674mn to $1.1bn.
With the company’s Chinese facility resuming operations and demand in the global railway infrastructure sector also rising, voestalpine’s said its order levels promising and its outlook for the upcoming fiscal year is positive. However, the company noted these are rough estimates and that it is unsure what impact COVID-19 will have on its business moving forward.
The company was forced to shutdown most of its plants because of lockdowns were imposed curtail the spread of the virus. Its small blast furnace in the Austrain city of Linz is still idled, and will remain so until further notice. More than 10,000 employees in Austria and 3,000 in Germany were listed for short-term work, which affected the company’s production output.
voestalpine’s revenue in FY 2019 dropped by 6.2pc to $14.2bn from $15.2bn in FY 2018. Its EBITDA saw a 24.5pc decrease to $1.3bn in FY 2019 from $1.75bn in FY 2018. Factors like global trade wars, a slump in the worldwide automotive industry, and rising iron ore prices affected the group’s performance through the year.