Voestalpine Chief Says He'd Build Elsewhere as Dust Study Clears Limits in Donawitz

Herbert Eibensteiner did not mince words about the cost of doing business at home. Asked by Die Presse where he would put a plant if he were breaking ground today, the voestalpine chief executive said "elsewhere" — a location with cheaper energy and a lower cost base than Austria. The remark, reported the same day, addressed a hypothetical new-build rather than any existing facility.

The comments landed as the steelmaker's shares slipped 3.0% to EUR 40.06 in Vienna, placing the stock among the session's bigger decliners, according to dpa-AFX. The drop came after the Nasdaq had fallen sharply the previous day, and Reuters described a broad selloff across European equities amid a market mood soured by worries about artificial intelligence. Voestalpine's move lower was part of that wider retreat rather than a company-specific reaction.

Dust Limits Met, Coarse Particulates Up

Separately, an expert assessment commissioned in connection with air quality around the company's Leoben-Donawitz site found that limits for fine particulate matter and heavy metals had been respected, ORF reported, citing the province of Styria. At three measuring points near the plant, however, coarse dust had risen noticeably. The report pointed to dryness, heavy traffic and loading and transport operations as possible causes — explanations rather than conclusively established sources — and recommended wet cleaning along with further investigation into what is driving the increase.

On the conversion front, voestalpine Stahl Donawitz reported progress on Tuesday at the electric arc furnace construction site, with the final construction phases of the off-gas cleaning system completed. Assembly of the electric arc furnace itself has largely been finished, and the partial switch to electrified steelmaking is slated for the first half of 2027.

EUR 100,000 per Apprentice

The group also put its training spend in the spotlight. At its corporate apprentice day in Linz on Thursday, 380 young skilled workers from Austria, Germany and Switzerland gathered. Voestalpine took on 311 new apprentices in Austria for the new training year, and each apprenticeship costs the company roughly EUR 100,000. The intake figure covers Austria only, while the Linz event drew participants from all three countries.

Investors now look to 11 November, when voestalpine plans to publish results for the second quarter of fiscal 2026/27 alongside its first-half report for the same year.