Austrian steelmaker voestalpine AG has announced its financial results for the first quarter ending June 30 of the financial year 2015-16. Accordingly, voestalpine's profit before tax in the given quarter increased to €329 million, rising by 71 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous financial year. The revenues of the company amounted to €3 billion, up 6.2 percent year on year.
In the given period, the company's EBITDA stood at €527 million, increasing by 45 percent year on year, which is equivalent to an EBITDA margin of 13 percent, compared to an EBITDA margin of 12.9 percent registered in the first quarter of the previous financial year.
According to voestalpine's statement, economic development in the first months of the business year 2015-16 was characterized by a slight uptrend in Europe and continuing good demand in North America, regionally differing trends in Asia, and a definite downward trend in Brazil. In the first quarter of the current financial year, voestalpine profited especially from an outstanding level of demand from the automobile industry, the railway infrastructure sector and the aviation industry.
For the remainder of the year, voestalpine said that it can be assumed that there will be little change in both the regional and the industry-specific performance; in particular, there are no signs for a recovery of the energy sector, including the oil and natural gas industries. However, the fact that the European Union is expected to come close to economic growth of around two percent for the first time in a number of years should have a positive effect.