In the first half of FY 2010-2011, which ended on September 30, Austrian steelmaker voestalpine AG increased its sales revenues by 24.2 percent year on year to €5.19 billion, due to a steep rise in sales volumes in all its divisions. The steelmaker registered a profit of €250 million in the period in question, compared to a loss of €19.8 million in the year-ago period.
In the second quarter of FY 2010-2011, which also ended on September 30, voestalpine AG increased its sales revenues by 3.1 percent quarter on quarter to €2.64 billion. The company registered a profit of €128.6 million in the quarter in question, increasing by 6.2 percent compared to the previous quarter.
Taking an in-depth look at the situation in the various countries and industry sectors a more differentiated picture appears, the steelmaker commented in its results, pointing out that, in contrast to ongoing positive development in the large economies in Asia, parts of Europe and Brazil, the situation in the US remains critical.
Commenting on the market environment, Dr. Wolfgang Eder, CEO of voestalpine AG, stated, "As dramatically as the broadly-based economic reversal began two years ago in the fall of 2008, so swiftly and unexpectedly did the recovery start in the summer of 2009 at least for the industry. But anyone who is using the dangerously overheated economic situation of the first half of 2008 as a yardstick will have to wait for quite some time for an all-clear signal. And that is a good thing, because then, the next economic slump would be inevitable. For the near future, we should be satisfied with growth that is not quite so dynamic, but modest and sustainable."
As agenda for the upcoming months, Eder defined three major projects for voestalpine Group. Under the headline "Doing our homework consistently," the CEO announced the completion of the structural modernization in the divisions steel and special steel, an accelerated orientation of the group towards products and markets for the coming decades, and the realization of the major part of the cost-cutting and efficiency improvement programs with the objective of achieving an optimization of €600 million by 2012.