At its meeting today, the Supervisory Board of voestalpine AG appointed Gerald Mayer to its Management Board. He will take over as CFO from April 1, 2024. His term of office is three years, as with all initial appointments. Gerald Mayer replaces Robert Ottel who has not extended his mandate and will leave voestalpine AG at the end of March 2024.

voestalpine subsidiary NEDCON, headquartered in Doetinchem, the Netherlands, and part of the international steel and technology Group’s Metal Forming Division since 2004, has been a supplier of innovative storage solutions for decades. With the acquisition of warehouse and racking specialist Torri S.P.A. from Vicenza, Italy, the company is now further strengthening its position in this demanding segment.

The Supervisory Board of voestalpine AG has appointed Carola Richter as Head of the Metal Forming Division with effect from April 1, 2024. The internationally experienced manager will become the first woman to join the six-member Management Board of voestalpine AG. Her term of office will be three years, as is the case with other first-time appointments. Carola Richter succeeds Peter Schwab, who, after ten years on the Management Board, will not be extending his mandate for personal reasons and will conclude his service on March 31, 2024.

With today’s official opening of the state-of-the-art special steel plant in Kapfenberg, voestalpine marks a technological milestone in the production of pioneering high-performance materials for the international automotive, energy, and aerospace industries. The new plant, the world’s most advanced in terms of digitalization and sustainability, is also the first of its type to be constructed in Europe in four decades. The region is reaping significant economic benefits from investment in this major project.

Around 400 apprentices in their final year of training and their trainers from 40 sites in Austria, Germany and Switzerland took the opportunity to meet in person and get to know the Group headquarters in Linz at the voestalpine Group Apprentice Day on October 10. This year, for the first time after three years of virtual events, the event was once again held as a live event at voestalpine Stahlwelt. Worldwide, 1,400 young people are completing an apprenticeship at voestalpine, 940 in Austria alone. 400 apprentices started their apprenticeship at the steel and technology group at the beginning of the new training year.

Only a few weeks after the official start of construction at the voestalpine site in Donawitz, the traditional groundbreaking ceremony for greentec steel takes place today at the Group’s headquarters in Linz. In the first step of the phased approach, one electric arc furnace (EAF) will be built at each of the sites in Linz and Donawitz. Integrating the two green electricity-powered EAFs into steel production makes it possible to electrify energy-intensive processes, thus reducing CO₂ emissions by around 30% from 2027. This corresponds to an annual saving of almost 4 million tons of CO₂ or 5% of domestic emissions. That makes greentec steel Austria’s largest climate protection program.

voestalpine Wire Rod Austria GmbH, a company of the Metal Engineering Division of voestalpine AG with sites in Donawitz, Bruck/Mur and Fürstenfeld, is relocating part of its production from Fürstenfeld to its site in Bruck/Mur by March 2024.

voestalpine launched its new brand and image campaign at the end of September. The ambassadors are the employees themselves, who sing about what they like and what they do in a voestalpine version of the international hit “My Favorite Things” from the movie “The Sound of Music”. The campaign tells the story of how the technology and steel Group contributes to modern, sustainable living from the perspective of the people working at voestalpine. It will be promoted nationally on TV, and in Austria and Germany on online and social media channels.

greentec steel is the voestalpine Group’s ambitious and feasible phased plan for green steel production. In a first step, one electric arc furnace will be constructed at each of the Linz and Donawitz sites. Converting to this technology allows the steel and technology Group to reduce its emissions by around 30%, representing annual savings of almost 4 million tons of CO₂. The investment volume is around EUR 1.5 billion. This traditional groundbreaking ceremony marks the start of construction at the Donawitz site, and this major investment will bring significant economic benefits to the region.

In its meeting today, the Supervisory Board of voestalpine AG reached a decision to extend the mandates of three members of the Management Board, and appointed two new members. Herbert Eibensteiner remains the Chairman of the Management Board of voestalpine AG for another five years. The mandates of Hubert Zajicek as Head of the Steel Division and Franz Kainersdorfer as Head of the Metal Engineering Division were also extended by a further five years each. Reinhard Nöbauer will become a Member of the Management Board from April 1, 2024, and the new Head of the High Performance Metals Division. He thus succeeds Franz Rotter, who will retire on March 31, 2024. His time on the Management Board will initially run for three years. The Supervisory Board will decide promptly on a successor to Robert Ottel, who yesterday declined an offer of the Supervisory Board to extend his contract as CFO. Ottel’s period in office ends on March 31, 2024. The successor to Peter Schwab, who at his own request will not be extending his Management Board contract beyond the current period in office, which expires on March 31, 2024, will be announced in September.

Robert Ottel, CFO, today informed the Chairman of the Supervisory Board that he will not accept the Supervisory Board's offer of reappointment for a five-year term starting April 1, 2024. 

Peter Schwab, Member of the Management Board of voestalpine AG and Head of the Metal Forming Division, will not be available for a further period in office when his contract comes to an end on 31 March 2024 for personal reasons. The Supervisory Board thanks Peter Schwab for his many years of dedication to the company’s positive development and has already commenced the search for his successor.

After many successful years as a Member of the Management Board of voestalpine AG and Head of the High Performance Metals Division, Franz Rotter will not extend his current Management Board contract which runs to March 31, 2024, but will instead leave the company to enjoy his well-earned retirement. His successor on the Management Board will be decided at tomorrow’s Supervisory Board meeting of voestalpine AG.

Following the 300,000 euros in emergency aid which voestalpine donated to UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, and Hilfswerk International on behalf of the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, voestalpine is once again demonstrating its social commitment. From mid-April to the end of June, a new initiative for the Group’s employees worldwide was conducted under the motto “moving together and doing good”. While running, walking, hiking, wheelchair driving, or handcycling, employees were able to use an app to collect digital points known as “cares” which the steel and technology Group then converted into donations for charitable causes. The total donation of 400,000 euros generated by the voestalpine cares run have now been handed over to UNICEF and the Austrian Red Cross for selected aid projects.

The voestalpine Group’s Metal Forming Division, a leading supplier of innovative vehicle restraint systems based in Krems, Austria, is making Europe’s roads safer. In the largest individual project in its road safety business segment to date, voestalpine is supplying a total of 100 kilometers of guard rails for use in expanding and modernizing the D4 highway in the Czech Republic, and managing the entire project through to installation. The first major delivery has recently been made, and completion is scheduled for fall 2024.

voestalpine AG once again achieved record figures in the business year 2022/23, demonstrating its robust strategic position in an exceptionally turbulent global environment. With the highest level of revenue and best operating result in the company’s history, the steel and technology group is able to raise its dividend to the second highest level since its listing on the stock exchange in 1995: At the 31st Annual General Meeting held in the Linz Design Center, a dividend of EUR 1.50 per share was agreed for the business year 2022/23. This is 25% higher than in the previous year (EUR 1.20). The Annual General Meeting therefore followed the proposal of the Management Board and the Supervisory Board. The payment of the dividend shall be made as from July 18, 2023 (ex-dividend day: July 13, 2023).

Premium rails from the steel and technology group are being used in the current modernization and expansion of the Graz streetcar network. Once again, Holding Graz is relying on the expertise of voestalpine Railway Systems, the world's leading supplier of complete railroad infrastructure systems. The Group, which has already equipped Vienna, Budapest, Prague and Berlin with high-tech rail infrastructure, is currently realizing tramway projects in Gothenburg, Stockholm, Osijek, Zagreb and Sarajevo in addition to the city of Graz.

At the 54^th Paris Air Show from June 19 to 25, the world's largest aerospace trade fair, the voestalpine Group's High Performance Metals Division will once again be represented as a leading supplier of pioneering technologies for the aerospace industry. The newly established Specialty Metals Aerospace Services division, which combines voestalpine's many years of expertise in production, distribution and supply chain management in the aerospace sector, will also be presented there for the first time.

From September, voestalpine will be the first Austrian industrial company to offer round-the-clock childcare for children up to the age of 12 at its site in Linz. If required, employees who work shifts will be able to have their children looked after by their families at weekends, on public holidays and at night. The premises are located in the newly opened vivo Kinderwelt, which since May has provided space for up to 200 children - instead of the previous 90 - in the crèche and kindergarten.

voestalpine has always promoted diversity and equality. For World Cultural Diversity Day on May 21, the steel and technology Group will clearly demonstrate its commitment to diversity in terms of nationality, religion, and culture: 82 different nationalities are working together at the voestalpine sites in Austria alone.

Following completion of the Semmering Base Tunnel, the new ÖBB southern line will create a completely new and, above all, rapid connection between Vienna and Graz or Klagenfurt. voestalpine Tubulars, a joint venture between the Austrian steel and technology group voestalpine and the American group NOV Grant Prideco, is providing high-strength tubes for safe tunnel driving in a highly complex geological environment. Together with the supply of high-tech rails, high-speed turnouts and the associated digital signaling technology from voestalpine Railway Systems, the voestalpine Group is thus making a further significant contribution to the implementation of this major project.

voestalpine announces the successful placement of its convertible bonds in the amount of EUR 250 million. Investor interest in this capital market transaction was high.

voestalpine intends to issue senior unsecured convertible bonds in the amount of EUR 250 million with a term of five years in order to further optimize its financing structure.

When the starting signal for the 21st Linz Danube Marathon is given for around 11,000 runners on April 16, voestalpine will be there as a strong partner for the second time. Once again this year, the steel and technology group is providing the trophies made from metal powder using a 3D printing process for the winner of the marathon. The weekend of the Upper Austrian running highlight also marks the start of the first "voestalpine cares run", in which Group employees will be collecting kilometers for charitable causes until the end of June.

A year ago, the Supervisory Board of voestalpine AG gave the green light to conduct the preliminary work for climate friendly steel production in Austria. This is now at an advanced stage. Now the next approval stage has been reached. An investment of around 1.5 billion euros is being made into constructing one electric arc furnace at each of the two sites, Linz and Donawitz. As part of its “greentec steel” plan, the plant and supplier decision will be made in 2023, construction will start in 2024, and commissioning of the two units will take place in 2027. This will allow the Group to reduce its CO₂ emissions by up to 30 percent from 2027. The exact start of implementation depends on clarifying unresolved funding issues in Austria.

voestalpine Railway Systems are the global leading supplier of complete railway systems, offering everything from the “hardware” (rails, turnouts, mountings, and sleepers) through to the digital monitoring of rail tracks and trains from a single source. Now the voestalpine Group subsidiary has secured its largest ever order worth around EUR 237 million (approx. GBP 210 million) for the design, supply, and servicing of turnouts, drives, and rail expansion joints including diagnostic systems for Great Britain’s new High Speed 2 rail network. voestalpine is also supplying other major projects worldwide with premium rails, high-speed turnouts, and signaling technology. In total, the order volumes amount to around EUR 600 million.

Employees who lose their jobs should not only receive money as part of a social plan, but also professional (re)orientation, training and support in finding a job. This was the basic idea behind the Steel Foundation, which was launched in 1987 in the wake of the steel crisis on the initiative of the works council and management of what was then VOEST-ALPINE. The model has been a success: with 80 member companies, most of which belong to the voestalpine Group, the Steel Foundation has helped more than 9,500 people back into working life; around 400 people are currently in the program. Yesterday, the member companies celebrated the 35th anniversary of this success story with almost 200 guests.

In light of the increasing lack of skilled labor, the USA and Austria are intensifying their cooperation and exchanges in the field of dual education. It is for this reason that US Secretary of Labor, Marty Walsh, was a guest today at voestalpine in Linz. He came to view the steel and technology Group’s state-of-the-art training center where around 400 apprentices are currently undergoing training.

voestalpine High Performance Metals Schweiz AG is a leading provider of sophisticated product and service solutions for stainless steel, surface treatment and coating in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein. With the acquisition of Metaltec AG in Pieterlen, Canton Bern, the subsidiary of the High Performance Metals Division of the international voestalpine Group is further expanding its offering in the high quality segment.