Voestalpine Chief Floats Foreign Site for New Plant as Shares Give Up 3%

Voestalpine boss Herbert Eibensteiner has cast doubt on building the group's next plant in Austria, telling Die Presse he would put a new facility "somewhere" with markedly cheaper energy and a better cost base. The conditional remark landed on Friday, the same session in which the steelmaker's stock lost 3.0% on the Vienna floor.

The decline came amid a broader European pullback. dpa-AFX tied the weakness in Vienna to the wider market mood after steep losses the previous day on the US tech exchange Nasdaq, and Voestalpine was not alone in the red — Lenzing, AT&S and Verbund also slipped, with the ATX closing lower. No report pinned the single-stock move directly to Eibensteiner's comments.

More Than 100 Firms Push Back on EU Carbon Overhaul

Separately, Voestalpine and over 100 other European companies came out against the planned reform of the EU emissions trading system on Thursday, according to media reports. The group warned of potential extra costs, plant closures and the shifting of production abroad.

On the trade front, Voestalpine Tubulars is awaiting the final outcome of a US anti-dumping case. Roughly two weeks ago the US Commerce Department set a preliminary dumping margin of 47.21% on certain Austrian OCTG imports into the United States. The company has requested that the final ruling be postponed; the margin remains provisional.

311 New Apprentices in Austria, 380 at Linz Gathering

The group also flagged its training pipeline on Thursday. Voestalpine took on 311 new apprentices in Austria at the start of the new training year, and 380 young skilled workers from Austria, Germany and Switzerland gathered at the company's apprentice day in Linz. Worldwide, the group says it is currently training around 1,500 young people across 30 trades.

Investors now turn to 11 November 2026, when Voestalpine is due to publish results for the first half of fiscal 2026/27. The financial calendar lists second-quarter figures for the same date.