Q1 2023 voestalpine AG Earnings Call
Austria's Voestalpine warned on Thursday that it expected a significant cooling of the economy in the second half of its fiscal year and said its earnings guidance depended on Europe continuing to receive sufficient supplies of natural gas. The rail, energy and aerospace sectors, meanwhile, should continue to show positive momentum, and strong order books by carmakers indicate that demand from the automotive industry will be at least stable during the remainder of the fiscal year, Voestalpine said.
Voestalpine has built up sufficient gas reserves to safeguard three months of production should there be an emergency hit to supplies, the Austrian steelmaker's chief executive said in an article published on Saturday. "We reached our goal this week and saved the entire amount," Herbert Eibensteiner told Der Standard in an interview. "In an emergency, this quantity gives us the time we need to process orders and shut down the directly affected production areas in a controlled manner."