Here you will find our press releases. Find out about the latest projects, orders, cooperations and other information about voestalpine.
In its meeting today the Supervisory Board of voestalpine AG decided on the future leadership of the Steel Division: on July 3, 2019, Hubert Zajicek will succeed Herbert Eibensteiner as Head of the largest Group division in terms of revenue; in turn, Herbert Eibensteiner will take over from Wolfgang Eder as CEO of voestalpine AG on that date. As a result, Zajicek, from Upper Austria, the Steel Division’s Management Board member responsible for Technology since 2014, will also become one of the six members of the Management Board of voestalpine AG. Zajicek’s appointment runs from July 3, 2019 to March 31, 2024. Based in Linz and specialized in the manufacture of premium steel grades and high-tech products, the Steel Division generated revenue of EUR 4.8 billion in the past business year, with a workforce of around 11,000 employees.
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This coming season marks the start of Austrian technology group voestalpine’s partnership with the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, the emerging and already highly successful fully-electric street racing series. voestalpine will lend its name to the races that will take place in Europe, which will form part of the “voestalpine European Races”.
For years the voestalpine employee shareholding scheme has been regarded as exemplary model throughout Europe. Developed in 2000, the scheme allows employees to participate directly in the success of the company via a foundation, at the same time safeguarding the Group’s stable ownership structure. The voestalpine AG Management Board resolved today to increase the company’s registered capital by around 1.25% in order to further expand the employee shareholding scheme. Immediately upon completion of the capital increase, the share of voestalpine Mitarbeiterbeteiligung Privatstiftung will increase to a total of 14.85%.
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By 2021* voestalpine will have invested around half a billion euros in technology development and digital transformation at the site in Kapfenberg. Now three major new facilities have successfully gone into operation. The highlight is a EUR 40 million forging line enabling materials for highly stressed, rotating aircraft turbine components to be manufactured for the first time; it also expands the portfolio of steel grades for the automotive and oil & gas industry. The run-up phases for a production facility for metal powder used in 3D printing and a state-of-the-art chemical laboratory were also completed at almost the same time. Work on constructing the new special steel plant is progressing rapidly.
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While the economic momentum at the start of the voestalpine Group’s business year 2018/19 was solid, the economic climate began to cloud over a bit in the second quarter, especially in the light of growing trade conflicts worldwide.
With an EBITDA of EUR 860.1 million and an EBIT of EUR 479.5 million, the preliminary figures of the voestalpine Group for the first half of the business year 2018/19 are below the expectations of the market. Against this backdrop and due to the fact that the assumption made in the last outlook that the negative earnings effects of the blast furnace repairs (amounting to around EUR 150 million) can largely be offset is unlikely to occur, the Management Board of voestalpine AG today adjusted the outlook for the business year 2018/19 and from today’s point of view expects an EBIT of just under EUR 1 billion.
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In early December the world’s first fully-electric international single-seater category in motorsport, the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, starts what is now its fifth racing season and brings groundbreaking innovations for both fans and drivers. In addition to a more efficient race car, more teams, and new circuits during the 2018/19 season the 22 drivers will also be competing in the voestalpine European Races for the first time. This will offer the eleven Formula E teams the opportunity to fight for another prestigious award in a totally new competition category. In the contest to be named winner of the voestalpine European Races, action-packed high-speed manoeuvres are certain to be on the cards during the five European E-Prix in Rome, Paris, Berlin, Monaco and Bern. During the Formula E official pre-season test in Valencia, Spain, from October 16 - 19, the teams will be making their first public debut ahead of preparations for the start of the season.
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It was just a few weeks ago that the Metal Engineering Division of the voestalpine Group bundled its competencies in rails, turnouts, and signaling technology under the Railway Systems brand, positioning itself as a global full-service provider for fully-digital railway lines. Now comes the merger of the other business segments within the division—wire, seamless tubes, and welding technology—under the Industrial Systems brand. As a consequence of this reorganization, the division’s Management Board team, led by Franz Kainersdorfer, has been expanded to include two long-term voestalpine managers: Dieter Fritz, formerly head of the Turnout Systems business segment, and Günter Neureiter, to date Head of Welding Consumables, are moving up to become members of the divisional Management Board. The Metal Engineering Division has its headquarters in Leoben-Donawitz, Austria.
Over the past days voestalpine has been able to secure an important partial victory with respect to the punitive US tariffs of 25 percent imposed on steel products which came into effect in June. Of a total of 4,300 applications for product tariff exemptions submitted by our Group and our customers, we have currently received replies from the US administration to 2,640 of them. Roughly 2,360 of these replies were positive, while 280 were negative. This is a further significant reduction in the economic risk that these tariffs represent to voestalpine—at maximum around three percent of Group revenue is directly affected.
voestalpine generated revenue of over one billion euros in the expanding Asian market during the past business year. Revenue in China alone is forecast to rise from its current level of over EUR 550 million to EUR 800 million by 2020. Now the Group is setting two further milestones on its path to achieving this growth: in the railway infrastructure sector an important step in expanding in the booming Chinese urban traffic sector has been taken with the founding of a further joint venture for the production of turnouts. In addition, recently automotive activities have been significantly extended with the startup of the second component plant in China.