Voestalpine sees increased net profit in April-December period

Austrian steelmaker voestalpine AG has announced its financial results for the first nine months ended December 31 of the fiscal year 2014-15.
 
Accordingly, voestalpine's net profit in the first nine months increased to €443 million, up 26.6 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous financial year. The revenues of the company remained unchanged at €8.26 billion.
 
In the given period, the company's EBITDA was €1.09 billion, increasing by 8.8 percent year on year, which is equivalent to an EBITDA margin of 13.2 percent, up from 12.1 percent in the same period of the previous year.
 
According to voestalpine's statement, at the beginning of 2015 continuing strong economic data from the US and stable development in China are contrasted by a stagnating economy in Brazil and Japan. Under the current political and economic circumstances, Russia will continue to face a significant recession for some time to come. Despite this proliferation of positive economic signals, voestalpine says that it would be premature to assume that this equals a beginning recovery in Europe, as the political and economic uncertainties are still too great. But there is a certain chance that in the course of the second half of 2015 there will be at least a slight economic recovery.