Austrian steelmaker voestalpine AG has announced its financial results for the first half ended September 30 of the fiscal year 2017-18.
Accordingly, voestalpine's net profit in the first half increased to €388.9 million, up 66.4 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous financial year. The revenues of the company amounted to €6.3 billion, rising by 16.5 percent year on year, mainly due to higher product prices, larger sales volumes and an improved product mix. In the given period, the company's EBITDA was €968.9 million, increasing by 37.5 percent year on year, while the EBITDA margin rose from 13 percent in the same period of the previous financial year to 15.4 percent.
Voestalpine stated that its steel division, whose performance in the first six months of the financial year 2017-18 was very strong, achieved the highest increase in both revenue and earnings, albeit compared to a rather more below-average performance in the first half of the financial year 2016-17. While the first two quarters of the previous year were defined not just by a restrained market environment but also by negative non-recurring effects such as the poor technical performance of a blast furnace and start-up losses related to the new hot briquetted iron (HBI) plant in Texas, US, the first half of the current fiscal year was characterized by a good volume market and rising prices. Aside from the fact that, in the second quarter this year, the new HBI plant in Texas had to close for a while due to the environmental fallout of hurricane Harvey even though the facility itself did not suffer any major damage, current earnings are not affected by negative non-recurring effects.
The company’s CEO Wolfgang Eder stated that given the positive global growth prospects that remain unchanged even at the start of the second half of the current financial year, it seems that the substantially positive momentum in both revenue and earnings, which is expected for the business year overall compared to the previous year, will continue.