Voestalpine to sell German special steel division

The management of Voestalpine has decided to change the planned strategic repositioning of Buderus Edelstahl to the sale of a subsidiary. The company says it is doing this in response to economic conditions for industrial manufacturing companies in Germany.

Buderus is part of the voestalpine High Performance Metals division. After the sale, the division will concentrate its product portfolio on the high-tech segment of special materials and reduce the share of production of tool and structural steel in the segment of standard grades. Management believes that the resulting optimization of the product portfolio will strengthen the competitive position of the High-Performance Metals division.

In the Automotive Components Division, which is part of the Metal Forming Division, voestalpine is maintaining its internationalization strategy. However, it will make targeted adjustments in response to structural underutilization of capacity in the German auto industry. Management has already responded by consolidating its production network, including the sale of its production site in Nagold, Germany, it said.

The above measures will result in a one-time negative impact on the group's Ebitda of approximately EUR 90 million (USD 98 million) and Ebit of approximately EUR 410 million. This means an adjustment to expected Ebitda for the 2023/24 financial year from approximately €1.7 billion to approximately €1.6 billion.

In other target customer sectors, the group notes that significant progress has been made, for example in the area of ​​automated warehouse technology. The promising railway infrastructure segment is also constantly expanding through strategic investments, he adds.