Voestalpine Puts Kindberg Social Plan on Paper by Late November as Tariff Pain Spreads to Guidance

Published on 11/15/2026 at 04:21 | Editorial boerse-global.de

Voestalpine is seeking roles for 150 Kindberg workers facing redundancy by March 2027 and cut its FY2026/27 EBITDA guidance top end to EUR 1.70bn.

Voestalpine Illustration mit AI erstellt.

Voestalpine has begun the search for landing spots for the roughly 150 employees set to lose their jobs at its Kindberg tubulars plant, sounding out group companies and regional employers for vacancies while a social plan is drawn up. The works council talks opened on Tuesday, and management aims to have the package finalised by the end of November, according to APA. The redundancies themselves are scheduled to take effect by March 2027.

The trigger is the extra US tariffs on the seamless pipes turned out in Kindberg. The same trade barrier sits behind the guidance cut Voestalpine announced on Wednesday, where the group also pointed to the ongoing war in the Middle East and higher energy and logistics costs.

Ceiling trimmed, floor untouched

For fiscal 2026/27 the group now guides to EBITDA of between EUR 1.60bn and EUR 1.70bn. The upper end had previously stood at EUR 1.85bn; the EUR 1.60bn floor was left alone, meaning Voestalpine removed headroom only at the top of the range. Media reports noted that second-quarter figures fell short of analyst expectations.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Voestalpine?

First-half revenue came in at EUR 7.7bn, with EBITDA of EUR 846m. EBIT reached EUR 470m, and net profit after tax was EUR 290m — a 46% year-on-year increase.

Deutsche Bank Research, for its part, reiterated its buy rating and EUR 63.00 price target on Thursday even as it trimmed EBITDA estimates for fiscal 2027 through 2029 by 3–7%. The analysts flagged heavier-than-expected drag from energy and logistics costs as well as US tariffs.