By Pierre Bertrand


Voestalpine AG on Wednesday backed its earnings outlook for fiscal 2023 on the back of a rise in first-half earnings, driven by strong demand and high product prices.

The Austrian steel-products manufacturer backed its guidance for the year ending March 31 of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the range of 2.3 billion euros to 2.4 billion euros ($2.32 billion-$2.42 billion), which it had raised in October from its previous guidance of approximately EUR2 billion.

After-tax profit for the first six months of the fiscal year rose to EUR715 million from EUR486 million in the prior-year period on sales that grew 37% to EUR9.3 billion.

Voestalpine said its earnings increased despite impairment losses that it signalled last month at its high-performance metals division.

The company said economic sentiment gradually deteriorated over the first half of its business year and that economic forecasts are becoming increasingly pessimistic. It warned that it expects the global economy to cool substantially during the second half of the business year, and that the biggest challenges will arise in Europe.

It said that demand in the consumer goods, white goods, construction, and mechanical engineering industries is expected to decline, while the energy and the aerospace sectors will continue growing over the next two fiscal quarters.

"Toward the end of the reporting period, first signs of restraint on the part of customers in some of the voestalpine Group's market segments already reflected the gradual loss of economic confidence," the company said.

The company added that its geographic and sector diversification should help stabilize and support earnings going forward despite the expected contraction of the economy.


Write to Pierre Bertrand at pierre.bertrand@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-09-22 0254ET