March 2024 | The Executive Board of voestalpine AG is reacting to the changed economic conditions for manufacturing industrial companies and is reorganizing production sites in Germany. This step is a consistent implementation of the voestalpine Group’s strategy of focusing the materials sector on the highest quality spectrum and further expanding the downstream processing sector globally in promising segments.
Buderus stainless steel in Germany
Following the restructuring steps that have already been taken in the past, the Executive Board of voestalpine AG has decided to transfer the strategic process initiated to reposition Buderus Edelstahl into a sales process. As a result, the High Performance Metals Division concentrates its product portfolio on the technologically demanding segment of high-performance materials and reduces the production share of tool steel and engineering steel in the performance-standardized area.
This sale and unscheduled depreciation in the High Performance Metals Division resulted in negative one-off effects in earnings (EBIT) amounting to approximately EUR 340 million. Of this, around EUR 90 million will also be reflected in EBITDA. The associated optimization of the product portfolio sustainably strengthens the position of the High Performance Metals Division in global competition.
Automotive Components Division
In the Automotive Components division, management is maintaining the internationalization strategy, but is making targeted adjustments to the structural underutilization of the automotive supply industry in Germany. Management has already responded by consolidating the production network, including selling the production site in Nagold, Germany.
Against this background, the Metal Forming Division is reorganizing its automotive supply division in Germany and has adjusted its planning assumptions accordingly. This results in one-off depreciation of around EUR 70 million.
Earnings outlook for FY 2023/24
The effects mentioned above result in a negative one-off effect on EBITDA of approximately EUR 90 million and on EBIT of approximately EUR 410 million for the voestalpine Group. This results in an adjustment of the EBITDA expectation for the 2023/24 financial year from around EUR 1.7 billion to now around EUR 1.6 billion. These measures and the one-time impact on earnings strengthen the future earnings potential of the voestalpine Group in a rapidly changing economic and regulatory restrictive environment.
The structural optimization and adjustment of the range of services is an essential step in implementing the strategy of focusing the materials area (steel production) on the highest quality segment and growing globally in the processing area. In the current 2023/24 financial year, important impetus was provided in the area of automated warehouse technology, among other things, by setting up a new production site in North America and an acquisition in Europe. The forward-looking railway infrastructure segment is also being continuously expanded through strategic investments.