The voestalpine Group forecasts an economic uptrend in 2021 despite rising COVID-19 cases in the EU, due to active economic stimulus programs that support the construction and consumer goods industries.
Strong orders from these sectors are anticipated to continue along with recovering demand in drilling exploration activity, and aerospace. The company anticipates an EBITDA of €1.9-2.2bn ($2.3-2.6bn) for FY2022 (ending March 31, 2022) against an EBITDA of €1.1bn in FY2021 with revenues of €11.3bn.
In Q1 FY2022 (ended June 30, 2021), the group increased its revenue by 45.6pc to €3.5bn compared to €2.4bn in the same year-ago quarter. EBITDA soared by 242pc to €540mn in Q1 against €158mn in the same quarter last year with EBITDA margin moving from 6.6pc to 15.5pc during this period. Profit before tax flipped from a loss of €74mn in Q1 FY2021 to a profit of €319mn in the latest quarter.
Revenue from the steel division rose by 58.3pc to €1.3bn in Q1 FY2022 against the year-ago quarter while the high-performance metals division increased revenue by 33.5pc to €704mn in the same time comparison. Revenue at voestalpine’s metal engineering division climbed by 19.7pc to €801mn and rose by 81pc to €825mn in the metal forming division in the same timeframe.
Performance of all of the group’s market segments grew during the quarter under comparison, except the aerospace segment, which remained subdued, However, this business is anticipated to gear up in the following year as demand recovers.
Orders in storage technology soared due to heightened e-commerce transactions. Orders improved in oil and gas while rail technology orders delivered stable results year-on-year. The company was affected by the semiconductor supply chain issues that resulted in short production stops at some plants but overall high-quality steel products demand was not severely affected in the US and China.
voestalpine grew its employee base by 2.1pc to 48,880 in Q1 FY2022 compared to the same quarter last year. The company operates over 500 sub-companies in the steel, high-performance metals, metal forming, and metal engineering divisions with each division employing about a fourth of the total staff.
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