voestalpine will continue to significantly reduce short-time work at its Austrian sites. The Austrian federal government's short-time work model III will therefore be utilized far less than the previous models from October onwards. voestalpine employed around 22,000 people in Austria in the past business year (around 49,000 worldwide).
Specifically, the steel and technology group anticipates that only around 5,000 Austrian employees will be subject to short-time working in Phase III. Most recently, an average of around 7,700 voestalpine employees were still on short-time work (at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, around 10,000 employees were originally on short-time work). This positive trend can now be continued. Only in those business areas and companies that continue to be affected by a sharp drop in demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic (especially aviation and oil and gas) is it necessary to register employees for short-time work III from October.
Demand has recently recovered somewhat in some customer segments. Thanks to the special efforts of our employees, we were also able to acquire additional orders. These cautiously positive developments will enable us to register significantly fewer employees for short-time working from October.
Individual areas of voestalpine, such as railroad infrastructure and high-bay racking systems, were exempted from short-time working from the outset due to their good business performance.
The voestalpine steel and technology group employs around 49,000 people worldwide, including around 22,000 in Austria alone. Around 10,700 employees worked at the largest site and Group headquarters in Linz/Upper Austria in the business year 2019/20, and around 9,100 at the other Austrian voestalpine sites in Styria and around 2,100 in Lower Austria. In Styria, redundancy plans are currently being implemented for a maximum of 550 employees at the Kapfenberg and Kindberg sites.
In its business segments, voestalpine is a globally leading steel and technology group with a unique combination of materials and processing expertise. voestalpine, which operates globally, has around 500 Group companies and locations in more than 50 countries on all five continents. It has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 1995. With its top-quality products and system solutions, it is a leading partner to the automotive and consumer goods industries as well as the aerospace and oil & gas industries, and is also the world market leader in railway systems, tool steel, and special sections. voestalpine is fully committed to the global climate goals and is working intensively to develop technologies which will allow it to decarbonize and reduce its CO2 emissions over the long term. In the business year 2019/20, the Group generated revenue of EUR 12.7 billion, with an operating result (EBITDA) of EUR 1.2 billion; it had about 49,000 employees worldwide.
