The slowdown in the car business in Germany and a further devaluation of the German one Buderus stainless steel make the Linz steel company Voestalpine to accomplish.
This made a profit warning necessary on Monday: Management now expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of just EUR 1.4 billion in the 2024/25 financial year, as the company announced. In August, around 1.7 billion euros were still expected.
“One-off impact on earnings”
“Based on the expected results for the first half of 2024/25, the significantly clouded market developments in Europe and expected negative one-off effects from the reorganization of the automotive components area in Germany in the course of the second half of 2024/25, the Executive Board of Voestalpine AG expects From today’s perspective, the entire 2024/25 financial year will have an EBITDA in the range of around 1.4 billion euros,” the group said in a press release. These are “one-off burdens on earnings in this financial year”.
The automotive components business is being restructured. The German Buderus Edelstahl, based in Wetzlar, has been making massive savings for a long time.
New devaluation
After the restructuring steps that had already been taken in the past, the board of Voestalpine AG decided in March 2024 to transfer the strategic process for the repositioning of Buderus Edelstahl into a sales process, Voest recalled on Monday.
Now a new devaluation was due here: “Due to the quarterly assessment required, the current status of negotiations with interested parties will result in negative one-off effects of around 50 million euros for the second financial quarter of 2024/25,” the management admitted.
The Management Board therefore expects an EBITDA of around 300 million euros and an EBIT of around 110 million euros for the second quarter of 2024/25 and an EBITDA of around 720 million euros and an EBIT for the first half of 2024/25 of around 340 million euros – “and therefore a result below current market expectations”.
Final numbers in November
Voestalpine will publish the final half-year figures on November 13, 2024.
With the sale of Buderus Edelstahl, the High Performance Metals Division is reportedly concentrating its product portfolio on the technologically demanding segment of high-performance materials and reducing the production share of tool steel and engineering steel in the standard grade range.